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OSMAt  SCHOOL 


SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NBW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

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MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 


BY 
2  7  3-^3 

WILLIAM   CHANDLER   BAGLEY 

PROFESSOR  OF  EDUCATION,  ^JNIVERSIJXJOF  ILLINOIS^. 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  EDUCATIVE  PROCESS,"   "CLASSROOM   MANAGE- 
MENT,"  "EDUCATIONAL  VALUES,"    "CRAFTSMAN- 
SHIP IN  TEACHING,"   ETC. 


THE   MACMILLANCOMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  December,  1914.     Reprinted 
January,  1915  ;  May,  1915. 


XorfajooD 

J.  8.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


3oil 

»*•/ 


THE  following  chapters  have  been  written  with  the 
needs  and  problems  of  the  young  teacher  primarily  in 
view.  An  effort  has  been  made  to  present  in  a  con- 
crete way  the  various  steps  that  may  be  taken  to  es- 
tablish a  wholesome  school  "spirit"  that  will  reduce 
disciplinary  difficulties  to  a  minimum.  To  this  end, 
most  of  the  chapters  deal  rather  with  positive  and  non- 
coercive  than  with  restrictive  and  repressive  methods 
of  treatment. 

By  way  of  introduction,  the  essential  characteristics  of 
a  well-disciplined  school  are  described,  and  the  problem 
of  creating  these  conditions  is  stated.  The  unruly  or 
disorderly  school  is  then  assumed ;  the  various  causes 
which  lead  to  disorder  are  analyzed ;  and  the  steps  that 
may  be  taken  to  transform  the  situation  are  discussed 
in  detail  with  as  many  typical  concrete  illustrations  as 
the  limitations  of  space  permit.  Coercive  measures  are 
treated  briefly,  following  the  discussion  of  the  positive 
measures.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  outline  the 
evolution  of  the  idea  of  punishment  as  a  coercive 
agency ;  and  the  different  types  of  penalties  com- 
monly employed  in  the  school  are  described  and  evalu- 
ated. Difficult  and  troublesome  "  cases  "  of  discipline 
are  then  discussed,  an  attempt  being  made  to  classify 


VI  PREFACE 

these  into  "types"  and  to  report  in  some  detail  the 
methods  that  have  been  employed  by  successful  teach- 
ers in  dealing  with  each  type.  A  final  chapter  discusses 
the  relation  of  discipline  to  the  doctrine  of  interest. 

The  illustrative  cases  have  been  drawn  from  a  num- 
ber of  different  sources;  some  have  been  taken  from 
earlier  books  on  school  management ;  others  from  school 
journals  ;  and  a  great  many  from  the  experience  of 
teachers  and  principals  with  whom  the  writer  has  dis- 
cussed the  disciplinary  problem.  In  every  instance,  so 
far  as  .the  writer  has  been  able  to  determine,  the  cases 
report  actual  conditions  with  trustworthy  fidelity. 

In  connection  with  the  classification  of  "  troublesome 
types"  (Chapter  XII),  it  should  be  understood  that 
both  the  naming  of  the  types  and  their  grouping  are 
only  tentative.  A  rich  field  is  here  suggested  that 
would  amply  repay  intensive  investigation. 

A  series  of  questions  and  exercises  is  appended  to 
each  chapter.  The  aim  of  these  questions  is  prima- 
rily to  provide  a  "  study  outline "  for  those  who  use 
the  book  as  a  text,  either  in  class  work  or  in  individual 
study.  Two  types  of  questions  find  a  place  in  these 
lists :  first,  "  fact "  questions  that  refer  to  the  discus- 
sions of  the  text;  and,  secondly,  "problem"  questions 
which  aim  to  encourage  in  the  reader  an  application  as 
well  as  an  understanding  of  the  principles.  Questions 
of  the  latter  type  are  the  more  numerously  represented. 

The  writer  is  indebted  to  Professor  L.  D.  Coffman 
for  a  number  of  the  concrete  cases  and  for  many  sug- 
gestions regarding  the  construction  of  the  book.  Per- 


PREFACE  Vll 

mission  has  very  kindly  been  granted  by  the  American 
Book  Company  to  reprint  from  White's  School  Manage- 
ment three  illustrative  cases;  and  the  committee  of 
teachers  in  the  Washington  Irving  High  School  in 
charge  of  publication  have  permitted  the  use  of  three 
extracts  from  the  unique  Writs  of  Assistance,  recently 
issued. 

Four  of  the  chapters  here  presented  appeared  in  a 
somewhat  different  form  as  articles  in  School  and  Home 
Education  during  the  years  1912-13  and  1913-14. 

URBANA,  ILLINOIS, 

November,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

WHAT  IS   MEANT   BY  A  WELL-DISCIPLINED 
SCHOOL 

PAGE 

The  paradox  of  discipline.  —  Changes  in  ideals  of  discipline.  — 
The  well-disciplined  school  dominated  by  a  "  fashion  "  of  good 
order.  —  Meaning  of  "  fashion."  —  Illustration  of  a  well-disciplined 
school.  —  The  meaning  of  discipline.  —  Protection  of  the  group. 
—  Educative  influence  of  good  discipline.  —  Summary:  the  three 
functions  of  school  discipline.  —  Questions  and  exercises  .  .  1 

CHAPTER   II 
THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL:    ITS   GENERAL  CAUSES 

Characteristic  symptoms  of  the  unruly  spirit.  —  The  causes  of 
the  unruly  school:  (a)  Harsh  and  unsympathetic  treatment. — 
Conditions  favoring  such  treatment.  —  (b)  Indulgence  and  weak- 
ness of  control.  —  Difficulties  of  reconciling  opposing  ideals  of 
individualism  and  collectivism.  —  (c)  Inadequate  preparation  and 
brief  tenure  of  teachers.  —  Disciplinary  efficiency  a  product  of 
experience.  —  Disciplinary  weakness  a  frequent  cause  of  failure 
among  teachers.  —  Alleged  advantages  of  youth  and  inexperience 
among  teachers.  —  Questions  and  exercises 14 

CHAPTER   III 
THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL:    ITS   SPECIFIC   CAUSES 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  The  teacher's  personality.  —  Impor- 
tant elements  in  a  teaching  personality :  Clapp's  studies.  —  The 
qualities  of  personality  negatively  important  in  discipline :  (a)  Lack 
of  sympathy.  —  (£)  Vacillation  or  weakness  of  the  will.  —  (c)  Pro- 
crastination. —  (d)  Ungoverned  temper.  —  (e)  Tactlessness.  — 


X  CONTENTS 

A 

PAGE 

(f)  Failure  to  get  the  pupil's  point  of  view.  —  Minor  causes  of 
the  unruly  school :  (a)  Failure  to  mechanize  routine.  —  (b)  The 
faulty  voice.  —  (c)  Failure  to  limit  responsibility  for  disciplinary 
duties.  —  Questions  and  exercises 29 

CHAPTER   IV 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY   SCHOOL:   (A)   THE  v 
IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  OBJECTIVE  ATTITUDE 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  What  is  meant  by  the  objective  atti- 
tude.—  Obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  objective  attitude:  (a)  Atti- 
tude of  the  public  toward  teaching.  —  (b)  Influence  of  short- 
sighted educational  theories.  —  Suggestions  for  cultivating  the 
objective  attitude  :  (a)  Locking  disciplinary  worries  in  the  school- 
room. —  (b)  Avoiding  the  poison  of  injured  feelings.  —  (c )  Absorp- 
tion in  objective  problems.  —  Questions  and  exercises  ...  51 

CHAPTER   V 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:  (B)  RAIS- 
ING THE  QUALITATIVE  STANDARDS  OF 
SCHOOL  WORK 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  A  rational  attitude  of  the  pupils 
toward  school  discipline,  the  goal.  —  Making  the  work  the  master. 
—  Difficulties  in  the  way  of  insuring  this  end.  —  Raising  qualita- 
tive standards  as  one  means  of  making  the  work  the  master : 
(a)  The  use  of  objective  scales  and  standards.  —  (b)  Encouraging 
pupils  to  compete  with  their  own  best  records.  —  (c)  Encouraging 
group  rivalry.  —  Summary.  —  Questions  and  exercises  ...  62 

CHAPTER  VI 

TRANSFORMING  THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL:   (C)  THE 
EMPLOYMENT   OF   INDIVIDUAL  ASSIGNMENTS 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  The  importance  of  individual  prob- 
lems. —  The  pupil  should  feel  a  responsibility  to  the  class  as  well 
as  to  the  teacher  in  working  individual  problems.  —  Individual 
problems  should  have  a  value  clearly  understood  by  the  pupils.  — 
Types  of  individual  assignments :  (a)  In  geography.  —  (b)  In 


CONTENTS  XI 

PAGE 

reading.  —  (c)  In  arithmetic.  —  (d)  The  framing  of  questions  by 
pupils.  —  (e)  The  project  in  manual  training  as  a  type  of  individ- 
ual assignment. —  (/)  School  "  dramatics  "  and  festivals  as  sources 
of  individual  assignments.  —  Concrete  illustrations  of  the  disci- 
plinary effect  of  individual  assignments.  —  The  need  of  caution  in 
generalizing  from  concrete  cases.  —  Questions  and  exercises  .  75 

fc  * 

V 

*  CHAPTER  VII 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL :  (Z>)  STIM-   \ 
ULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  The  importance  of  developing  group 
responsibility.  —  The  limitations  of  group  responsibility  :  (a)  The 
older  conception  of  the  teacher  as  a  master  to  be  modified  but  not 
entirely  abandoned.  —  (b)  The  danger  of  purchasing  order  with 
favors.  —  The  "honor  system"  as  a  case  in  point.  —  The  attitude 
of  the  pupils  all-important.  —  Specific  measures  that  may  be  taken 
to  intensify  group  responsibility  :  (a)  Demanding  collective  rep- 
aration for  collective  offenses.  —  (b)  Rallying  pupils  to  support 
the  good  name  of  the  school.  —  (c)  Encouraging  mutual  criticism : 
advantages  and  dangers.  —  Espionage  and  talebearing  as  related 
to  group  responsibility.  —  Suggestions  for  avoiding  the  encour- 
agement of  talebearing.  —  Pupil  self-government  schemes  may 
serve  temporary  purposes.  —  Segregating  group  responsibility  by 
conferring  authority  on  the  older  pupils :  the  English  system.  — 
The  development  of  a  "fashion"  of  good  order  does  away  with 
the  necessity  for  formal  systems  of  self-government.  —  The  role 
of  literary  and  athletic  organizations  in  stimulating  group  respon- 
sibility. —  Suggestions  for  supervising  pupil  and  student  organiza- 
tions. —  Questions  and  exercises 90 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:   (E)  THE 
TONIC    INFLUENCE   OF   A    REGIMEN   OF   WORK 

The  importance  of  developing  "  habits  of  work."  —  The  specific 
habit  of  adopting  the  work  attitude  during  school  hours.  —  The 
disciplinary  effect  of  a  regimen  of  work.  —  Establishing  the  regi- 
men :  (a)  The  need  of  alert  control.  —  (b)  Nervous  tension  must 


Xll  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

be  avoided.  —  (c)  The  dirigibility  of  enthusiasm.  —  (d)  Enemies  of 
enthusiasm :  (1)  Unsympathetic  supervision.  —  (2)  Short-sighted 
criticism  of  school  studies.  —  (3)  The  necessity  for  teaching  many 
subjects  some  of  which  the  teacher  may  dislike.  —  (4)  Individual 
worries  and  cares.  —  (5)  Administrative  difficulties  blocking  the 
development  of  a  regimen  of  work.  —  Questions  and  exercises  .  119 


CHAPTER   IX 

NJ 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:  (F)  THE      J( 

PLACE     AND      LIMITATIONS      OF     COERCIVE 
MEASURES 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  The  scope  of  direct  coercion :  often 
an  initial  but  always  only  a  supplementary  method  of  transform- 
ing the  unruly  school.  —  The  first  principle}:  coercive  measures 
must  be  swift,  certain,  and  unerring.  —  Few  rules,  rigidly  enforced. 
—  Forbidden  activities  must  meet  with  unfailing  correction.  — 
The  decisive  "  coup  "  as  a  means  of  insuring  initial  order.  —  Illus- 
tration of  the  decisive  coup. — The  principle  of  persistence. — 
Where  direct  coercive  measures  are  "  indicated  " :  (a)  The  indulged 
or  spoiled  school.  —  (b)  The  school  in  rebellion.  —  (c)  Willful  dis- 
obedience. —  (d)  Malicious  mischief :  (1)  "  Horse-play  "  at  fire- 
drills.  —  (2)  Maltreatment  and  hazing.  —  (3)  Petty  theft.  — 
(4)  Vandalism.  —  (5)  Insolence  and  insult  —  Interference  from 
without  as  a  handicap  to  effective  discipline.  —  The  importance  of 
publicity  in  cases  of  interference  and  dictation.  —  The  principle 
of  individual  treatment.  —  The  supervision  of  study  and  assembly 
rooms  as  illustrating  the  principle  of  individual  treatment  — 
Questions  and  exercises 131 

CHAPTER  X 
COERCION  THROUGH  REWARDS  AND  PENALTIES 

The  psychology  of  rewards  and  penalties :  (a)  The  principle 
of  direct  association  of  reward  or  penalty  with  approved  or  con- 
demned conduct.  —  (6)  The  relative  efficiency  of  pleasant  and 
unpleasant  consequences  in  modifying  behavior.  —  (c)  The  disci- 
pline of  the  disagreeable  in  education.  —  Factors  conditioning 
the  efficiency  of  penalties.  —  Questions  and  exercises  .  .  .  164 


CONTENTS  3011 


CHAPTER  XI 

CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT   AND   THE   REACTION 
AGAINST   IT 

PAGE 

The  decline  of  physical  coercion  in  American  education. — 
Why  actual  physical  coercion  is  disappearing:  (a)  The  magni- 
tude of  the  school  system  suggests  power  and  authority.  — 
(b)  The  development  of  special  schools  fand  reformatories  for 
incorrigibles.  —  (c)  The  feminization  of  the  teaching  population. 

—  (d)  The  development  of  humanitarian  ideals,  the  most  impor- 
tant factor.  —  The  specific  reaction  against  corporal  punishment : 

(a)  Universality   of    corporal    punishment  in  former   times. — 

(b)  The  decline  of  corporal  punishment  as  a  penalty  under  civil 
and  military  law.  —  (c)  The  universality  of  corporal  punishment 
in  the  older  schools.  —  The  older  severity  sanctioned  by  the  older 
ideals.  —  (d)   The  evolution  of  the  conception  of  punishment: 

(1)  The  instinctive  basis ;  vindictive  or  retributive  punishment. — 

(2)  The  ideal  of  justice  and  the  idea  of  proportionate  punish- 
ment. —  (3)  The  humanitarian  ideal  and  the  idea  of  reformatory 
punishment.  —  (4)  The   final   stage  :  the   idea   of   prevention  of 
misconduct  as  displacing  the  need  for  punishment.  —  (e)    The 
development  of  new  prejudices  from  the  operation  of  these  ideals. 

—  Difficulties  involved  in  reconciling  the  newer  ideals  of  punish- 
ment with  existing  necessities :  (a)  Leniency  and  disrespect  for 
law.  —  (b)  Leniency  in  school  discipline  as  a  possible  factor  in 
the  increase  in  crime.  —  The  place  of  corporal  punishment  in 
present-day  education :  (a)  The  older  order  should  not  be  rees- 
tablished. —  (b)  The  right  to  inflict  corporal  punishment  should 
be  reserved  to  the  school  authorities  with  adequate  safeguards 
against   its   abuse.  —  (c)  Where   corporal   punishment   is  "  indi- 
cated."—  (d)  Suggestions   for    inflicting    corporal    punishment 
under  these  conditions.  —  Questions  and  exercises     .        .        .     170 


CHAPTER  XII 
CONTEMPORARY    SCHOOL   PENALTIES 

Conditions  which  must  be  fulfilled  by  a  school  penalty  that  is  to 
be  thoroughly  consistent  with  present-day  ideals.  —  Contemporary 
penalties  :  (a)  "  Solitary  treatment"  —  (b)  Satiation  as  a  penalty. 


XIV  CONTENTS 

PACK 

—  (c)   Rebukes  and  scoldings.  —  (d)    Keeping  after  hours.  — 
(e)  "  Keeping  in  "  at  recess.  —  (f)  Demerit  systems.  —  Why  de- 
merit systems  are  usually  ineffective. —  (g)  The  withdrawal  of 
privileges.  —  (A)   Conferences   with   parents.  —  (*')   Suspension. 

—  (j)  Reporting  cases  of  discipline  to  the  principal.  —  The  dan- 
gers of  weak  sentimentalism  in  doctrines  of  discipline.  —  The 
place  and  limits  of  leniency  in  discipline.  —  Summary.  —  Ques- 
tions and  exercises .  .     198 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES 

Problem  of  the  chapter.  —  Restatement  of  the  functions  of  dis- 
cipline. —  Distinction  in  law  between  a  crime  and  a  vice.  —  An- 
alogous distinction  in  the  case  of  school  offenses.  —  The  trouble- 
some types :  Advantages  of  classifying  troublesome  cases  under 
types.  —  Tentative  classification :  (a)  The  stubborn  pupil.  — 
(3)  The  haughty  pupil.  —  (c)  The  self-complacent  pupil.  — 
(d)  The  irresponsible  pupil.  —  (e)  The  morose  pupil. —  (/)  The 
hypersensitive  pupil.  —  (g)  The  deceitful  pupil.  —  (A)  The 
vicious  pupil.  —  Questions  and  exercises 216 

CHAPTER   XIV  \  1 

^ 
DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  INTEREST     j 

Dangers  of  basing  a  theory  of  discipline  solely  upon  the  doc- 
trine of  interest  —  At  the  same  time,  the  close  connection  be- 
tween interest  and  efficiency  must  be  recognized.  —  The  naive 
doctrine  of  interest  lends  a  specious  sanction  to  the  lines  of  least 
resistance.  —  The  conditions  under  which  an  effective  interest  is 
engendered :  the  illusory  character  of  immediate  interest  shown 
in  (a)  The  phenomena  of  the  "  warming-up  "  period.  —  (b)  The 
phenomena  of  the  "  practice  "  curve.  —  (c)  The  importance  of 
familiarity  and  repetition  in  artistic  appreciation.  —  Wider  appli- 
cations of  the  principles  of  familiarity  and  repetition.  —  Dangers 
of  immediate  interests  in  determining  vocational  choices.  —  Sig- 
nificance of  vocational  guidance.  —  Mental  growth  comes  through 
overcoming  obstacles.  —  The  "  travail "  of  mental  growth.  —  The 
relation  of  discipline  to  mental  growth.  —  Questions  and  exercises  238 


SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 


SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 


CHAPTER   I 
2  7  2L^/3 

WHAT  is  MEANT  BY  A  WELL-DISCIPLINED  SCHOOL? 

IT  is  a  paradox  of  the  well-disciplined  school  that 
"  discipline  "  is  conspicuous  by  its  absence.  If  an  in- 
telligent observer,  honestly  reporting  a  visit  to  a  school, 
makes  no  reference  to  its  discipline,  one  may  be  fairly 
confident  that  the  school  is  "  well-disciplined." 

Ideals  of  what  constitutes  good  discipline  are  subject 
to  change.  They  have,  indeed,  changed  very  radically 
within  the  last  two  or  three  decades.  The  intelligent 
observer  of  fifty  years  ago,  applying  to  our  present- 
day  schools  the  ideal  of  discipline  then  current,  would 
criticize  them  as  badly  disciplined;  and  the  observer 
of  to-day,  looking  in  on  an  old-time  school,  would  have 
his  attention  attracted  by  various  phenomena  of  dis- 
cipline that  our  grandfathers  would  have  overlooked 
as  quite  normal.  The  silence,  the  rigidity  of  posture, 
and  the  precision  of  movement  would  impress  him  (if 
he  were  a  thoroughly  orthodox  modern  schoolman) 
•jaost  unfavorably. 

But  the  marked  change  that  has  come  about  in  the 
ideal  of  school  discipline  is  something  deeper  and  more 


2  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

fundamental  than  these  contrasts  suggest.  The  older 
ideal  of  discipline  looked  sharply  to  externals ;  the  new 
ideals  look  below  the  surface.  The  older  standards 
rested  comfortably  upon  the  more  superficial  symptoms 
of  obedience,  order,  and  industry ;  the  modern  standards 
probe  into  the  motives  of  obedience,  order,  and  industry. 
The  older  standards  had  regard  primarily  for  the  physical 
attitude  of  the  pupil  toward  the  school  and  toward  the 
teacher;  the  modern  standards  have  regard  primarily 
for  the  mental  attitude  of  the  pupil  toward  his  work  and 
toward  those  who  work  with  him. 

The  Well-Disciplined  School  is  Dominated  by  a 
"Fashion of  Good  Order."-  -The  essential  characteristic 
of  the  present-day  well-disciplined  school  has  been 
identified  with  many  different  qualities.  Some  assert 
that  the  most  important  feature  of  such  a  school  is  the 
interest  of  the  pupils  in  their  work,  or  their  absorption  in 
problems  that  appeal  to  them.  Others  would  lay  large 
emphasis  upon  the  spirit  of  cooperation  among  the 
pupils  and  between  teacher  and  pupils.  Still  others 
would  speak  of  sympathy  as  the  dominant  character- 
istic. There  is  justification  for  the  use  of  any  one  of 
these  terms  in  describing  the  well-disciplined  school. 
Such  a  school  is  likely  to  be  marked  by  the  interest  of 
pupils  in  their  work;  by  their  aggressive  attack  upon 
problems ;  by  a  spirit  of  cooperation ;  and  by  sympathy. 
Perhaps  if  any  two  qualities  are  essentially  character- \ 
istic  of  the  well-disciplined  school,  the  existence  of  a 
spirit  of  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  and  a 


THE   WELL-DISCIPLINED   SCHOOL  3 

quick  and  intelligent  sympathy  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher  should  be  accorded  first  choice. 

The  relative  merits  of  these  and  other  terms,  however, 
need  not  trouble  us  unduly  at  the  present  point  of  the 
discussion.  What  is  needed  here  is  an  expression  that 
will  enable  us  most  clearly  to  formulate  the  immediate 
or  near-lying  problem  of  school  discipline,  and  for  this 
purpose  there  are  many  advantages  in  using  the  much- 
abused  term  "fashion."  For  the  present,  then,  we  shall 
think  of  the  well-disciplined  school  as  one  in  which  the 
"  fashion "  or  "  mode  "  of  good  order,  courteous  be- 
havior, and  aggressive  industry  has  been  firmly  estab- 
lished. 

The  Meaning  of  Fashion.  —  The  word  "  fashion  " 
is  employed  in  everyday  speech  to  refer  almost  exclu- 
sively to  matters  of  dress ;  and  yet,  even  in  this  narrow 
reference,  it  names  a  force  that  has  a  powerful  influence 
over  human  conduct.  Inevitably,  the  individual  will 
act  in  most  matters  in  accordance  with  group  standards 
and  group  sanctions.  He  will  follow  the  prevailing 
"  mode,"  not  only  in  his  dress,  but  in  his  interests, 
his  diversions,  and  his  opinions.  Fashion  is  not  the 
greatest  or  the  noblest  force  in  life,  but  it  is  a  force  that 
dominates  most  individuals  in  some  of  their  activities, 
and  some  people  in  most  of  their  activities. 

There  is  a  customary  use  of  the  term  "  fashion  "  that  is 
likely  to  be  confusing  in  this  connection.1  When  a  "style" 

JThe  term  is,  indeed,  employed  by  sociologists  in  different  ways. 
Ross  (Social  Psychology,  New  York,  1908,  ch.  vi)  emphasizes  fashion  as 


4  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

of  dress,  or  a  type  of  sport  or  recreation,  or  a  mode  of  belief, 
is  new  and  followed  by  a  few,  although  rejected  by  the  many, 
it  is  said  to  be  a  "new  fashion"  ;  the  normal  individual  will 
be  likely  not  to  "follow  the  fashion"  and  perhaps  he  will 
plume  himself  not  a  little  on  the  "independence"  that  he  has 
thus  asserted.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  new  style  is  distinctly 
not  the  "fashion"  ;  it  is  rather  a  "  fad  " ;  it  does  not  become 
the  fashion  until  it  has  been  generally  accepted;  and  those 
who  are  really  "independent,"  —  who  really  refuse  to  follow 
fashions,  —  are  the  innovators.  Whether  such  independence 
is  a  virtue  or  a  vice  or  neither,  —  whether  it  is  praiseworthy 
or  blameworthy  or  indifferent,  —  depends  upon  the  exigencies 
of  the  particular  instance.  The  point  of  emphasis  in  the 
present  connection  is  that  the  school  virtues  of  obedience, 
order,  and  industry  may  be  made  matters  of  fashion  among 
the  pupils;  that  is,  the  pupils  take  these  things  "for 
granted,"  just  as  the  normal  adult  takes  for  granted  hats  and 
coats  and  vests  and  shoes,  or  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper. 
They  are  not  questioned,  but  are  matters  of  course,  —  seldom 
obtruding  themselves  upon  the  consciousness  of  those  who 
make  up  the  social  group  as  in  any  sense  raising  an  issue,  or 
demanding  a  choice  from  two  or  more  possibilities  of  conduct. 

A  fashion,  then,  means  for  us  in  the  following  chap- 
ters a  type  of  conduct  that  has  been  sanctioned  and 
accepted  and  "  taken  for  granted  "  by  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  social  group,  —  by  so  large  a  proportion  that 
those  failing  to  act  conformably  with  the  dominant  mode 

springing  "  from  the  desire  to  individualize  one's  self  from  one's  fellows." 
Herbert  Spencer,  on  the  other  hand,  emphasized  fashion  "  as  a  form  of 
social  regulation  analogous  to  constitutional  government  as  a  form  of 
political  regulation."  It  is  in  this  latter  meaning  that  we  are  employ- 
ing the  term. 


THE    WELL-DISCIPLINED    SCHOOL  5 

of  conduct  feel  out  of  harmony  with  the  group  as  a 
whole,  —  feel,  indeed,  the  powerful  pressure  of  the 
group  (exerted,  perhaps,  quite  unconsciously)  to  bring 
them  into  harmony  with  the  majority.  The  primary 
problo^of  school  discipline  is  to  insure  the  operation  of 
this  powerful  force  toward  the  end  for  which  the  school 
exists. 

An  Illustration  of  Fashion  in  School  Discipline.  —  The 
"  best  disciplined  "  school  that  the  writer  has  ever  seen 
was  in  charge  of  a  principal  who  had  worked  for  six  years 
to  make  the  collective  will  of  the  pupil-body  give  its 
sanctions  to  good  order,  courteous  behavior,  and  aggres- 
sive effort.  Interest  in  school  work  and  cooperation  with 
the  teachers  had  become  distinct  fashions.  So  powerful 
was  the  force  thus  generated  and  directed  that  the 
superintendent  not  infrequently  transferred  to  this  school 
pupils  who  had  got  beyond  control  in  other  schools  of  the 
city.  Recalcitrant  elsewhere,  these  pupils  often  settled 
at  once  into  the  dominant  fashion  of  order  and  industry. 
The  spirit  of  the  social  group  seized  them  irresistibly. 
The  social  rewards  which,  in  other  schools,  sanctioned 
disobedience,  willful  disorder,  and  idleness,  went  in  this 
school  to  more  laudable  types  of  conduct;  and  the 
normal  boy,  craving  the  good  will  and  the  admiration 
of  his  fellows,  sought  these  prizes  through  the  only 
means  that  could  procure  them.  To  this  school,  also, 
teachers  who  tad  failed  elsewhere  were  sometimes  sent 
in  order  that  they  might  regain  their  self-confidence  and 
find  themselves  anew  under  the  favorable  conditions 


0  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

there  existing.  Not  all  of  the  recalcitrant  pupils,  of 
course,  succumbed  to  the  powerful  group  influence ;  and 
not  all  of  the  teachers  were  able  to  undo  the  mischief  of 
their  earlier  failures;  but  the  mortality  in  both  cases 
was,  surprisingly  low. 

*  Th'e  Meaning  of  Discipline.  —  In  the  preceding  para- 
graphs the  word  "  discipline  "  has  been  used  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  is  commonly  employed  in  the  discussion  of 
classroom  management.  It  is  essential  at  the  outset, 
however,  to  have  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  the  field  that  the 
discussion  will  cover ;  hence  it  will  be  well  to  formulate 
a  tentative  definition  which  will  attempt  to  make  explicit 
the  problems  that  the  teacher  gathers  together  under 
the  general  term,  "  discipline." 

Etymologically  "  discipline  "  comes  from  the  same 
Latin  root  that  gives  us  the  word  "  disciple,"  and  his- 
torically  the  problem  of  discipline  has  been  to  bring  the 
impulses  and  conduct  of  the  individual  into  harmony  with 
the  ideas  and  standards  of  a  master,  a  leader,  or  a  teacher. 
Military  discipline  has  meant  a  type  of  training  that 
would  make  a  group  of  individuals  instantly  responsive 
to  the  will  of  the  commander.  Instantaneous  obedience 
to  commands,  and  precision  of  movement  in  response 
to  certain  signals,  have  been  the  ends  which  military 
discipline  has  sought.  And  school  discipline  meant  for 
a  long  time  a  quite  similar  subservience  of  the  individual 
will  to  the  will  of  the  teacher. 

Changing  ideals  of  education,  however,  and  the  devel- 
opment of  a  philosophy  of  life  which  recognizes  the  funda- 


THE   WELL-DISCIPLINED   SCHOOL  7 

mental  nature  of  individual  rights,  have  combined  to 
transform  rather  radically  the  meaning  of  discipline  as 
a  phase  of  the  educative  process.  Under  the  stimulus 
of  the  democratic  ideal,  the  notion  of  the  subservience 
of  the  masses  to  the  will  of  a  master  or  a  monarch  has 
become  repugnant.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  neces- 
sity for  discipline  has  passed,  or  that  the  factor  of  repres- 
sion and  control  can  be  eliminated.  It  simply  means 
that  the  point  of  view  has  shifted.  The  directive  force 
of  the  master's  or  the  monarch's  will  has  been  replaced 
in  the  theory  of  democracy  by  the  directive  force  repre- 
senting the  collective  will  of  the  people.  That  this  ideal 
of  democratic  theory  is  not  thoroughly  realized  in  the 
actual  working  out  of  democratic  government  is  obvious ; 
but  few  would  deny  that  a  large  step  in  advance  has  been 
taken  by  recognizing  in  the  established  forms  and  consti- 
tutions of  government  the  principle  of  the  collective  will, 
—  even  though  it  be  quite  true  that  strong  individuals 
still  dominate  in  large  part  the  development  of  demo- 
cratic societies,  and  often  originate  the  opinions  and  judg- 
ments that  later  became  crystallized  in  law  and  custom. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  social  group  which  con- 
stitutes the  school  cannot  in  every  way  duplicate  the 
conditions  existing  in  adult  society.  The  school  must 
continue  to  resemble,  in  many  ways,  the  older  order 
in  which  a  single  individual  imposed  his  will  upon  the 
group,  and  the  conception  of  school  discipline  must  con- 
tinue to  reflect  some  measure  of  arbitrary  dominance 
and  repression.  This  is  made  inevitable  by  the  imma- 


8  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

turity  of  the  pupils,  and  by  the  necessity  of  bringing  them, 
through  a  process  of  training,  to  the  point  where  they 
can  appreciate  the  nature  and  limitations  of  individual 
freedom.  But  the  newer  conception  of  school  dis- 
cipline, while  it  recognizes  the  difference  between  an 
immature  social  group  and  an  adult  social  group,  has 
been  modified  in  many  important  ways  by  the  democratic 
ideal.  It  has  recognized  the  value  of  having  the  school 
life  represent  from  the  very  outset,  and  increasingly 
with  the  increased  maturity  of  the  pupil  body,  the  condi- 
tions of  self-government  and  of  the  exercise  of  individual 
freedom  checked  by  responsibility  to  the  group  as  a  whole. 
While  the  conduct  of  the  child  must  be  brought  into 
harmony  with  the  ideals  of  the  teacher  (which  in  turn 
represent  the  ideals  of  that  larger  society  for  participa- 
tion in  which  the  child  is  being  prepared),  the  modern 
conception  of  discipline  would  bring  the  child  as  rapidly 
as  possible  to  the  point  where  he  will  recognize  the  neces- 
sity of  repression,  and  see  clearly  that  the  demands  made 
upon  him,  and  the  limitations  placed  upon  his  conduct, 
are  really  dictated  by  something  more  fundamental  than 
the  arbitrary  will  of  those  in  authority. 

The  newer  conception  of  discipline,  in  other  words, 
recognizes  that  the  measures  which  the  school  must 
take  to  control  its  pupils  should  serve  as  far  as  may  be 
to  illustrate  the  basic  necessity  for  law  and  order  in  a 
civilized  society ;  and  it  recognizes  that  these  measures 
should  be  administered  wherever  possible  in  such  a  way 
that  the  individual  will  feel  them  as  dictated, 'not  by  the 


THE   WELL-DISCIPLINED   SCHOOL  9 

whims  of  those  in  authority,  but  by  the  necessities  of 
the  work  that  is  undertaken  and  by  the  welfare  and 
needs  of  the  social  group. 

There  remains,  however,  a  certain  meaning  of  the 
word  discipline  which  is  somewhat  independent  of  social 
implications.  Not  only  must  the  group  be  protected 
from  the  impulses  of  the  individual;  and  not  only 
must  the  necessity  for  this  protection  appeal  with  com- 
pelling force  to  all;  but  the  individual  must  from  one 
point  of  view  be  protected  against  himself.  The  service 
which  a  routine  or  regimen  of  disciplinary  measures  may 
render  in  developing  the  important  art  of  self-control 
cannot  be  overlooked.  It  is  true  that  society  has  set  a 
high  sanction  upon  self-control  very  largely  because  the 
self-mastery  of  each  individual  is  the  clearest  guarantee 
that  he  will  not  run  amuck  of  social  restraints  and  con- 
ventions. But,  viewed  from  the  point  of  view  of  in- 
dividual welfare  alone,  it  is  obvious  that  self-mastery 
is  equally  important.  It  is  through  the  discipline  of 
childhood  and  youth  that  the  individual  may  most 
readily  be  taught  to  suppress  momentary  desire  for  the 
sake  of  a  remote  end  or  goal.  It  is  through  systematic 
discipline  in  this  sense  of  the  word  that  he  may  be  led 
to  appreciate  the  highest  values  that  life  holds.  Generally 
speaking,  it  is  the  primitive,  untrained,  undisciplined 
mind  that  follows  the  behest  of  transitory  impulse 
through  the  seductive  lanes  of  least  resistance.  In  any 
case,  the  only  known  means  of  counteracting  this  primi- 
tive tendency  is  to  acquaint  the  child,  from  an1  early  age, 


10  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

with  the  meaning  of  persistence,  sustained  effort,  and 
an  occasional  sacrifice  of  the  desires  of  the  moment; 
and  this  can  be  done  only  through  a  salutary  regimen  of 
sympathetic  but  rigorous  discipline. 

Summary :  The  Functions  of  Discipline.  —  The  mean- 
ing of  school  discipline,  then,  may  be  formulated  as 
three  related  and  yet  somewhat  distinct  functions : 

1.  The  creation  and  preservation  of  the  conditions 
that  are  essential  to  the  orderly  progress  of  the  work 
for  which  the  school  exists. 

2.  The  preparation  of  the  pupils  for  effective  partici- 
pation in  an  organized  adult  society  which,  while  grant- 
ing many  liberties,  balances  each  with  a  corresponding 
responsibility,  and  which,  while  allowing  to  each  in- 
dividual much  freedom  in  gratifying  his  desires  and 
realizing  his  ambitions,  also  demands  that  the  individual 
inhibit  those  desires  and  repress  those  ambitions  that  are 
inconsistent  with  social  welfare. 

3.  The  gradual  impression  of  the  fundamental  lessons 
of  self-control,  especially  through  acquainting  the  pupil 
with  the  importance  of  remote  as  contrasted  with  im- 
mediate  ends,    and    through   innumerable   experiences 
which  will  lead  him  to  see  that  persistence  and  sustained 
effort  bring  rewards  that  are  infinitely  more  satisfying 
than  can  be  attained  by  following  the  dictates  of  momen- 
tary desire. 

The  Problem  of  the  Unruly  School.  —  It  is  in  the 
schools  where  disorder,  discourteous  behavior,  and  lack 
of  aggressive  effort  are  the  fashion  that  the  problem  of 


THE    WELL-DISCIPLINED   SCHOOL  II 

discipline  becomes  of  the  greatest  significance;  for  in 
these  schools  otherwise  normal  pupils  are  assimilating 
the  most  unfortunate  standards  and  gaining  the  very 
worst  type  of  preparation  for  later  life.  And  such 
schools,  while  undoubtedly  less  numerous  in  proportion 
to  the  total  number  of  schools  than  they  were  twenty 
years  ago,  are  still  all  too  frequently  found  in  our  coun- 
try to-day.  In  well-organized  systems  where  super- 
vision is  constant  and  usually  efficient,  these  schools 
may  be  quickly  discovered  and  their  faults  corrected. 
But  in  the  smaller  communities  and  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts where  the  teaching  population  in  general  is  im- 
mature, transient,  and  inadequately  trained,  and  where 
supervision  is  necessarily  infrequent,  these  breeding 
places  of  twisted  standards  and  evil  habits  may  easily 
exist  year  after  year  with  little  attempt  at  correction. 
Indeed,  it  is  not  infrequent  to  find  these  unruly  schools 
"  taken  for  granted."  Teachers  and  parents  have  be- 
come so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  unfortunate 
attitude  of  the  pupils  that  it  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

The  preceding  discussion  has  aimed  primarily  to  in- 
dicate what  is  meant  by  the  term  "  fashion  "  and  to 
suggest  its  important  bearing  upon  the  chief  problem 
with  which  the  following  pages  will  be  concerned.  It 
will  now  be  our  task  to  follow  out  some  of  the  implica- 
tions of  this  point  of  view.  The  specific  problem  is  this : 
Given  a  school  in  which  the  unfortunate  fashion  of  dis- 
order, discourteous  behavior,  scamped  work,  and  lack 


12  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

of  aggressive  effort  has  become  established,  how  may 
this  unfavorable  attitude  be  transformed  into  one  of  the 
opposite  type?  How,  in  short,  can  an  effective  fashion 
of  good  order,  courteous  behavior,  and  aggressive  indus- 
try be  established? 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  What  features  of  a  school  that  is  well-disciplined  as 
measured  by  modern  standards  would  be  inconsistent  with 
the  older  ideals  of  school  discipline?    What  features  of  the 
older  type  of  school  discipline  are  inconsistent  with  the  modern 
ideals  ? 

2.  Give  examples  of  standards  of  conduct  that  are  "  taken 
for  granted  "  by  the  adult  social  group  in  your  community. 

3.  How  would  you  determine  in  inspecting  a  classroom 
whether  good  order,  industry,  and  a  respect  for  the  rights  of 
others  had  been  made  matters  of  "fashion"? 

4.  Contrast  effective  school  discipline  with  the  effective 
discipline  of  a  military  company.     What  points  of  similarity 
and  what  points  of  difference  would  you  emphasize  ? 

5.  In  connection  with  the  three  general  functions  or  pur- 
poses of  school  discipline,  name  three  common  practices  that 
aim  primarily  to  fulfill  the  first  function.    Three  that  are 
concerned  chiefly  with  the  second  and  third. 

6.  Can  you  think  of  measures  that  might  effectively  meet 
the  demands  of  the  first  function,  but  which  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  the  second  or  third  ? 

7.  Would  you  treat  failure  to  do  assigned  work  as  an  offense 
against  the  school  (that  is,  as  inconsistent  with  the  welfare  of 
the  group),  or  simply  as  an  offense  of  the  individual  against 
himself?    If  both  points  of  view  are  justified,  which  is  the 
more  significant  in  a  case  of  this  kind? 


THE   WELL-DISCIPLINED   SCHOOL  13 

8.  Would  you  justify  disciplinary  (or  corrective)  measures 
in  the  following  case  and,  if  so,  upon  what  basis?  A  pupil 
who  is  required  by  the  poverty  of  his  family  to  deliver  papers 
in  the  morning  and  who  is,  consequently,  deprived  of  the 
normal  amount  of  sleep,  becomes  cross  and  troublesome  in 
school,  neglecting  his  lessons  and  indulging  in  various  types 
of  mischief. 


CHAPTER  H 

THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL  :  ITS  GENERAL  CAUSES 

The  Characteristic  Symptoms  of  the  Unruly  Spirit.  - 
We  shall  start,  then,  with  a  school  in  which  the  wrong 
"  fashion "  has  become  firmly  established.  A  most 
unfortunate  spirit,  antagonistic  to  order  and  inimical 
to  effort,  dominates  the  pupils  as  a  body.  They  are 
openly  disrespectful  to  those  in  authority.  Perhaps 
they  sit  sullenly  in  their  classes,  answering  questions 
in  monotones  and  monosyllables,  only  inertly  attentive 
to  the  work  in  hand.  They  nudge  each  other  when  the 
teacher  is  not  looking;  indulge  in  smirks,  giggles,  and 
guffaws  as  the  occasion  seems  to  warrant ;  groan  audibly 
when  tasks  are  assigned;  and,  in  general,  indulge  in 
that  form  of  misbehavior  which,  for  want  of  a  better 
term,  may  be  dubbed  "  smart-aleckism."  At  the  close 
of  the  recitation,  they  either  saunter  disdainfully  or 
rush  pell-mell  back  to  their  seats,  —  or,  hi  a  depart- 
mental school,  back  to  the  study  or  assembly  room. 
In  the  "  lines,"  they  are  mischievous;  on  the  play- 
ground they  are  defiantly  rough,  self-consciously  bois- 
terous, and  intentionally  rude.  On  the  street  they 
may  hoot  and  jeer  at  strangers  and  "  call  names  "  at 
the  teachers  passing  on  their  way  to  and  from  school. 

14 


THE    UNRULY    SCHOOL  1$ 

Nor  are  the  symptoms  of  a  thoroughly  unruly  school 
limited  to  these  collective  manifestations  of  a  defiant 
attitude.  The  individual  pupil,  taken  to  task  by  the 
individual  teacher,  will  be  sharp  and  insolent,  or  sullen 
and  secretive.  He  will  pretend  not  to  hear  questions 
and  commands,  loitering  when  requested  to  come  quickly, 
dawdling  over  his  tasks  with  an  air  of  willfully  inviting 
trouble.  For  scamped  work,  he  will  be  ready  with 
plausible  excuses;  against  charges  of  carelessness  or  of 
misconduct  he  will  assume  the  air  of  injured  innocence. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  we  are  dealing  here  by 
definition  and  hypothesis  with  a  school  made  up  of  boys 
and  girls,  otherwise  quite  "  normal,"  who  are  governed 
by  the  wrong  type  of  group  standards ;  we  are  not  deal- 
ing with  mental  or  moral  defectives.  The  pupils  may 
come  from  good  homes,  and  in  these  homes  they  may 
be  fairly  representative  of  normal,  well-behaved,  well- 
mannered  children.  But  the  moment  that  they  enter 
the  atmosphere  of  this  unruly  school,  they  are  trans- 
formed literally  into  beings  of  another  species ;  and  the 
atmosphere  of  the  school  is  not  to  be  spatially  limited ; 
it  extends  to  all  situations  in  which  the  "  school  atti- 
tude "dominates  the  pupil. 

The  Causes  of  the  Unruly  School.  —  The  first  ap- 
proach to  the  problem  at  issue,  —  the  problem  of  reform- 
ing this  unfortunate  spirit,  —  lies  naturally  in  a  search 
for  the  causes  that  commonly  lie  back  of  the  situation 
to  be  remedied.  By  hypothesis,  the  attitude  of  the 
pupils  is  general;  of  course,  there  are  conspicuous 


1 6  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

exceptions,  for  in  the  worst  situations  one  will  find 
individual  pupils  who  are  docile  and  tractable;  but 
these  often  serve  only  to  intensify  the  difficulties  of 
the  problem,  for  they  are  seldom  leaders  and  the  rewards 
that  go  to  them  for  their  good  behavior  simply  stimulate 
their  less  docile  fellows  to  renewed  efforts  at  trouble- 
making.  They  set  negative  fashions,  so  to  speak, 
because  they  are  negative  forces  in  the  collective  life 
of  their  juvenile  community.  Generally  speaking,  then, 
little  help  can  be  expected  from  these  individual 
exceptions. 

General  Causes :  (a)  Harsh  and  Unsympathetic  Treat- 
ment. —  Of  the  possible  causes  of  the  unruly  school, 
two  may  be  cited  first  as  probably  more  frequently 
operative  than  all  others  combined.  One  is  careless, 
unsympathetic,  sometimes  even  brutal  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  teachers  and  principals  who  have  become 
hardened  through  failure,  and  who  teach  school,  as  it 
were,  "  from  hand  to  mouth."  That  is,  they  preserve 
a  sufficient  measure  of  order  to  keep  from  actual  dis- 
missal, and  yet  are  never  able  to  generate  enthusiasm 
over  their  work.  Schools  of  this  type  are  likely  to 
exist  in  decadent  city  systems,  where  political  influence 
governs  appointments  and  ties  the  hands  of  adminis- 
trative officers.  These  officers,  indeed,  not  infrequently 
settle  into  the  attitude  of  acquiescence  in  the  lack  of 
morale  which  characterizes  the  teaching  force.  Like 
the  teachers  themselves,  they  work  from  hand  to  mouth, 
reasonably  content  if  each  succeeding  year  finds  them 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  If 

still  holding  their  thankless  offices,  the  recipients  of 
a  meager  but  still  unearned  wage. 

As  antecedents  to  conditions  of  this  sort,  one  may 
all  too  frequently  uncover  tragedies  of  blighted  hopes 
and  decayed  ambitions  that  would  stimulate  the  pen 
of  a  Dickens  or  a  Hugo.  Men  and  women  who  have 
entered  upon  the  work  of  teaching  or  of  administration 
with  an  enthusiastic  recognition  of  its  possibilities  and 
responsibilities  have  found  themselves,  when  it  is  too 
late  to  change,  fettered  to  a  system  that  is  cankered 
with  political  corruption,  or  held  upon  the  lowest  plane 
of  efficiency  by  the  inertia  of  a  decadent  community. 
Lacking  the  ability  or  the  prestige  to  assume  aggressive 
social  leadership  for  the  improvement  of  conditions 
they  have  been  held  to  the  wheel  of  routine  until  all  of 
the  spirit  has  been  crushed  from  them. 

Occasionally  into  such  a  system  comes  a  superintend- 
ent with  the  power  of  leadership  and  with  ideals  of 
progress.  But  the  decadence  is  often  too  far  advanced 
to  permit  of  regeneration.  The  entire  school  organiza- 
tion is  infected  with  the  virus ;  the  older  employees, 
secure  in  their  appointments  through  long  years  devoted 
assiduously  to  keeping  their  "  fences  "  in  repair,  habitu- 
ated through  their  experience  to  the  policy  of  doing  the 
least  work  for  a  living  wage,  respond  to  the  stimulus 
of  reform  with  a  deadening  lack  of  interest  or  with  re- 
actionary conspiracies  and  cabals.  The  new  superin- 
tendent may  strive  to  remedy  the  situation,  but  finding 
the  task  beyond  his  strength,  he  too  may  sink  to  the 


1 8  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

level  of  toleration  and  passive  acquiescence  which  will 
soon  lapse  into  somnolent  indifference. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  discussion  to  dwell 
upon  the  grave  social  dangers  which  inhere  in  situations 
of  this  sort.  Obviously  what  is  needed  in  such  cases 
is  a  profound  awakening  of  the  community  to  its  respon- 
sibilities. The  evil  here  is  community  indifference, 
and  can  be  effectively  met  only  by  community  stimu- 
lation. But  two  or  three  alert  and  progressive  teachers 
serving  in  such  a  community  can  do  much  to  show  the 
need  for  such  a  reform  by  making  their  own  classrooms 
so  radically  different  from  the  average  in  the  community 
that  the  contrast  will  compel  a  recognition  of  the  evils. 
This,  we  take  it,  rather  than  aggressive  outside  prop- 
aganda, is  the  field  in  which  the  classroom  teacher 
can  render  the  greatest  service.  And  in  the  arid  deserts 
represented  by  these  decadent  systems,  one  not  infre- 
quently finds  oases  of  efficiency  that  could  well  stand 
as  models  of  classroom  service  in  any  community.  This 
is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the  classroom  teacher, 
even  though  subjected  to  the  handicap  of  serving  in  a 
decadent  system,  can  yet  fulfill  his  or  her  own  responsi- 
bilities in  an  effective  way,  and  create  a  school  spirit 
that  will  not  be  without  a  salutary  influence  upon  the 
community  as  a  whole. 

The  difficulties  are  numerous  and  onerous,  but  they 
are  not  insuperable.  Perhaps  the  most  serious  is  the 
powerful  social  pressure  that  comes  from  the  teaching 
group  as  a  whole,  —  a  type  of  pressure  common  in  some 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  1 9 

labor  organizations  in  which  work  that  is  above  the 
average  in  efficiency  is  looked  upon  as  inconsistent  with 
the  standards  of  the  craft,  —  as  an  expression  of  dis- 
loyalty to  one's  fellow  workers.  Loyalty  is  a  most 
important  virtue,  and  must  be  listed  among  the  prime 
requisites  of  a  system  of  craft  or  professional  ethics. 
But  no  craft  or  profession  can  permanently  endure  if 
its  standards  are  inimical  to  public  welfare;  and  such 
is  surely  the  case  when  "  loyalty  "  to  one's  fellow  crafts- 
men precludes  the  highest  possible  development  and 
application  of  individual  skill. 

Inadequate  supervision  is  often  a  prime  cause  of  this 
unprogressive,  hand-to-mouth  attitude  of  the  teach- 
ing staff,  quite  apart  from  the  cooperation  of  stultifying 
political  or  social  factors.  Teachers  who  must  do  their 
work  without  the  stimulus  of  tangible  and  direct  respon- 
sibility for  disciplinary  conditions  may  easily  acquire 
habits  of  harshness,  severity,  and  unsympathetic  control 
that  will  easily  give  rise  to  a  negative  attitude  of  the 
pupil  body  toward  the  school  and  its  work.  And  along 
with  too  little  supervision  in  this  connection  must  cer- 
tainly be  listed  too  much  supervision  of  the  wrong  sort, 
—  the  nagging  and  querulous  faultfinding  that  incites 
the  teacher  to  gain  the  desired  results  by  a  reapplication 
to  his  pupils  of  the  same  nagging  and  faultfinding 
methods.  Thus  a  school  system  that  would  seem  from 
the  outside  to  be  admirably  organized  and  most  care- 
fully supervised  may  reveal  innumerable  centers  of 
disaffection. 


2O  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

(&)  Indulgence  and  Weakness  of  Control.  —  A  second 
general  cause  of  the  unruly  school  is  quite  the  opposite 
of  that  just  discussed.  It  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
one  word,  "  indulgence."  Here  there  is  no  harshness, 
no  severity.  Sympathy  may  be  abundant,  but  it  is 
of  the  wrong  variety;  it  finds  erroneous  expressions 
in  permitting  lapses  from  good  order  to  go  un- 
noticed, in  tolerating  discourteous  conduct,  and  in 
accepting  scamped  and  careless  work.  Like  the  spoiled 
child  in  the  indulgent  home,  the  pupil  group  becomes 
overconscious  of  its  own  demands  and  gradually  passes 
to  the  point  of  looking  upon  privileges  as  rights.  The 
pupils  may  even  assume  a  disdainful  attitude  toward  the 
authority  of  the  school  and  of  the  teachers,  acting  under 
the  sincere  belief  that,  in  the  school  as  in  an  organization 
of  adults,  all  forms  of  government  are  unjust  that  do 
not  rest  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

Back  of  this  condition  there  is  likely  to  be  a  crude 
philosophy  of  discipline  held  by  those  in  authority  or  by 
influential  individuals  in  the  community.  Indeed,  to 
harmonize  the  practical  necessities  of  child  discipline  with 
the  principles  of  individual  liberty  is  not  an  easy  task, 
and  those  who  approach  this  task  with  an  emotional 
bias  are  quite  likely  to  overshoot  the  mark.  The  ten- 
dency to  solve  intricate  and  fundamental  problems  by 
the  nonchalant  application  of  half  truths  and  emotional 
shibboleths  is  all  too  common  among  social  reformers, 
especially  among  those  whose  efforts  must,  from  lack  of 
training  and  experience,  be  decidedly  amateurish.  The 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  21 

interest  of  the  people  in  school  work  ought  to  be  en- 
couraged in  every  way,  but  the  government  of  large 
masses  of  children  is  a  quite  different  problem  from  the 
government  of  two  or  three  children  in  the  home  (cer- 
tainly vastly  different  from  the  government  of  one 
child,  and  it  is  from  experience  so  limited  as  this  that 
some  of  the  most  astounding  suggestions  for  school 
reform  frequently  emanate).  The  management  of  a 
classroom  of  thirty  or  forty  children  or  the  management 
of  a  large  pupil  group  aggregating  from  five  hundred  to 
two  thousand  immature  souls  is  a  special  problem  de- 
manding specialized  ability.  It  is  not  a  problem  with 
which  amateurs  can  safely  experiment. 

There  are  also  certain  tendencies  of  a  widely  preva- 
lent type  which  intensify  the  difficulties  here  suggested. 
The  general  attitude  of  the  public  both  in  America  and 
abroad  toward  disciplinary  measures  has  been  radically 
transformed  within  the  last  two  or  three  decades.  As 
was  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  ethical  standards 
have  changed.  Individual  development  and  individual 
self-realization  are  ideals  that  have  a  wide  and  growing 
currency.  The  reaction  against  coercive  methods  of 
government  finds  a  concrete  expression  in  the  demand 
that  coercive  measures  be  minimized  in  school  practice. 
The  right  of  the  child  to  be  well  fed,  well  housed,  and 
well  taught  easily  suggests  his  right  to  work  out  his 
individual  desires  and  impulses,  untrammeled,  so  far  as 
possible,  by  adult  repression  and  control. 

The  large  element  of  worth  that  inheres  in  this  doc- 


22  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

trine  of  individual  rights  should  not  blind  one  to  the 
iniquities  that  may  result  from  attempting  suddenly  to 
transform  the  government  of  the  school  consistently  with 
its  tenets.  Individualism  and  collectivism  have  still 
many  hard  and  knotty  problems  to  compromise  before 
the  proper  balance  is  struck ;  and,  if  we  are  not 
mistaken,  some  of  these  problems  are  centered  in  the 
government  of  the  people's  schools.  We  shall  have 
occasion  to  revert  to  this  problem  in  a  later  discussion. 
In  the  present  connection,  it  is  enough  to  recognize  that 
the  attitude  of  disrespect  for  authority  upon  the  part  of 
the  pupil  has  sometimes  been  effectually  if  not  de- 
liberately encouraged  by  the  propaganda  that  has  been 
undertaken  to  better  the  conditions  of  child  life  and  to 
conserve  child  welfare. 

A  typical  example  of  what  well-meaning  reformers  may  do 
quite  unintentionally  to  pervert  the  attitude  of  children 
toward  the  authority  of  the  law  is  to  be  found  in  the  following 
quotation  attributed  to  Judge  Lindsey : 1 

"In  dealing  with  the  problem  of  crime  in  youth,  we  shall 
make  progress  just  in  proportion  as  we  appreciate  the  ab- 
surdity of  limiting  our  remedies  to  the  court,  the  jailer,  and 
the  hangman.  Our  plea  for  public  playgrounds  is  a  plea  for 
justice  to  the  boy.  We  are  literally  crowding  him  off  the 
earth.  We  have  no  right  to  deny  him  his  heritage,  but  that 
is  just  what  we  are  doing  in  nearly  every  large  city  in  this 
country,  and  he  is  hitting  back,  and  hitting  hard,  when  he 
does  not  mean  to,  while  we  vaguely  understand  and  stupidly 
punish  him  for  crime.  Why  shouldn't  he  rebel?  The  amaz- 
ing thing  is  that  he  is  not  worse  than  he  is." 

1  Quoted  in  Journal  of  Education  (Boston),  Oct.  31,  1912. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  23 

We  have  strong  faith  in  Judge  Lindsey's  sincerity,  and  a 
deep  appreciation  for  the  fine  altruism  expressed  in  the  above 
paragraph.  And  yet  the  quotation  implies  a  specious  argu- 
ment that  has  already  worked  mischief  in  school  management, 
whatever  may  have  been  its  influence  in  civil  government. 
Why  shouldn't  the  boy  rebel?  The  situation  oppresses  him. 
So  the  industrial  situation  oppresses  many  people.  Shall  we 
encourage  them  for  this  reason  to  play  fast  and  loose  with 
the  law  of  property  ?  The  marriage  contract  oppresses  some 
people.  Shall  we  indorse  the  doctrine  of  free  love?  Our 
system  of  import  duties  is  far  from  equitable.  Shall  we 
palliate  smuggling  ? 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  unfortunate  disciplinary 
conditions  in  some  schools  may  be  traced  to  the  prev- 
alence of  the  fallacious  reasoning  that  is  likely  to  follow 
from  the  hasty  acceptance  of  half  truths  regarding  indi- 
vidual rights.  The  operation  of  this  factor  is  not  so 
frequently  a  cause  of  the  unruly  school  as  is  the  harsh, 
careless,  and  unsympathetic  treatment  referred  to 
above.  Its  seriousness,  however,  is  not  adequately 
indicated  by  the  relatively  small  number  of  schools  in 
which  it  does  operate,  for  these  schools,  though  few  in 
number,  are  among  the  most  conspicuous,  and  are 
sometimes  looked  upon  as  models  which  represent  the 
last  word  in  educational  progress. 

(c)  The  Inadequate  Preparation  and  Brief  Tenure  of 
Teachers.  —  The  conditions  described  above  are  in- 
tensified by  the  lack  of  preparation  that  characterizes 
a  large  proportion  of  elementary  school  teachers,  and 
by  the  brief  tenure  of  service  which  makes  the  teach- 


24  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

ing  population  a  constantly  changing  body.  There 
are  in  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States  about 
530,000  teachers.  Of  these  it  is  safe  to  say  that  ap- 
proximately one  half  (or  more  than  250,000)  are 
twenty-four  years  of  age  or  under;  and  approxi- 
mately one  fourth  (or  more  than  125,000)  are  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  or  under.  Thousands  of  teachers 
are  seventeen,  eighteen,  or  nineteen  years  old.1  Stated 
in  terms  of  the  number  of  pupils  taught,  one  may  say 
with  fair  confidence  in  the  accuracy  of  the  statement 
that  between  four  and  five  million  boys  and  girls 
in  our  public  schools  receive  all  of  their  formal  educa- 
tion from  teachers  who  are  scarcely  more  than  boys 
and  girls  themselves. 

-The  seriousness  of  this  situation  may  not  be  apparent 
at  first  glance.  Sometimes  one  will  find  competent  and 
efficient  teachers  in  this  immature  group;  but  the 
chances  are  strongly  against  efficiency.  A  certain 
measure  of  maturity  is  essential  to  sound  judgment  in 
dealing  with  children.  The  adolescent  teacher  is  too 
close  to  childhood  himself  or  herself  adequately  to 
appreciate  the  responsibilities  of  the  trust  that  a  teach- 
ing position  involves.  And  this  immaturity  of  judg- 
ment is  likely  to  find  its  most  unfortunate  expression 
in  dealing  with  difficult  cases  of  discipline.  One  is 
likely  to  go  either  to  the  extreme  of  severity  or  to  the 
extreme  of  leniency.  The  immature  teacher  has  yet  to 

1  Computed  from  the  tables  in  L.  D.  Coffman's  Social  Composition 
of  the  Teaching  Population,  New  York,  1911. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  2$ 

learn  a  fundamental  lesson  that  is  very  difficult  to  mas- 
ter, —  the  lesson  of  the  "  objective  attitude,"  the  art  of 
reading  the  personal  factor  out  of  the  disciplinary  situa- 
tion ; l  and  the  immature  teacher  is  also  particularly 
subject  to  the  foreshortened  perspective  which  fails  to 
see  beyond  immediate  consequences. 

The  large  proportion  of  young  teachers  in  the  public- 
school  service  suggests  at  once  the  near-lying  cause  of  the 
condition,  —  namely,  the  brief  time  during  which  the 
average  teacher  remains  in  service.  Of  the  half  million 
teachers  in  our  schools,  approximately  one  fourth  are 
new  each  year.  In  any  case,  one  cannot  be  far  wrong 
in  stating  that  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  new 
recruits  are  needed  each  year  to  fill  the  broken  ranks  of 
the  teaching  corps.  The  "  average  life  "  of  the  elemen-^ 
tary  school  teacher  is  certainly  not  more  than  four  years, 
and  this  means  that  approximately  one  half  of  all  of  those 
entering  the  teaching  service  leave  this  service  before 
they  have  reached  their  fifth  year  of  experience.  One 
fourth  of  those  entering  leave  at  or  before  the  close  of 
their  second  year. 

Disciplinary  Efficiency  a  Product  of  Experience.  —  How 
much  the  ability  to  secure  a  reasonable  measure  of 
order  in  a  classroom  depends  upon  experience  it  is 
difficult  to  say,  but  certain  facts  justify  the  statement 
that,  during  the  first  three  or  four  years,  the  average 
teacher  is  doing  amateurish  and  not  expert  work.  Ruedi- 
ger  and  Strayer,2  for  example,  had  204  elementary 

1  Cf.  ch.  iv.       2  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  vol.  i,  pp.  272  ff. 


26  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

school  teachers  "  ranked  "  by  their  principals  on  the 
basis  of  "  general  merit  "  and  found  that  no  teacher  with 
less  than  five  years  of  experience  found  a  place  in  either 
the  first  or  the  second  rank;  and  they  found  further 
that  the  most  important  specific  quality  making  up 
"  general  merit  "  in  elementary  teachers  is  disciplinary 
ability.  Boyce,1  in  a  similar  study  of  the  qualities  of 
merit  among  high  school  teachers  (involving  the  "rank- 
ing "  of  434  teachers  by  their  principals)  found  no  teacher 
in  the  first  or  second  rank  who  had  not  had  at  least  three 
years  of  experience;  disciplinary  ability,  although  not 
so  prominent  a  factor  in  general  merit  here  as  among 
elementary  teachers,  still  plays  an  important  r61e. 

Disciplinary  Weakness  a  Frequent  Cause  of  Failure 
among  Teachers.  —  The  data  represented  by  these  two 
studies  are  supplemented  in  a  very  interesting  way  by 
three  studies  of  the  causes  of  failure  among  elementary 
and  high  school  teachers. 

Littler2  obtained  data  regarding  the  causes  of  failure 
among  676  teachers  who  were  dropped  from  the  teaching 
staff  in  various  types  of  elementary  schools  during  the 
two  years,  1908-1910.  The  cause  most  frequently  noted 
by  the  principals  and  superintendents  reporting  was 
"  weakness  in  discipline,"  and  this  cause  accounted  for 
more  than  fifteen  per  cent  of  all  failures.  Buellesfield,3 
following  Littler's  method,  has  shown  that  this  source 

1  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  vol.  iii,  pp.  144  ff. 
1  School  and  Home  Education,  March,  1914. 

1  In  an  unpublished  study  on  file  in  the  library  of  the  University  of 
Illinois. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL  27 

of  failure  is  more  frequently  found  among  immature 
teachers  of  brief  experience  than  among  older  teachers 
who  have  served  longer.  According  to  Buellesfield's 
study,  weakness  in  discipline  was  easily  the  most 
frequent  source  of  failure  among  elementary  teachers, 
accounting  for  15  %  of  all  failures  among  women  teachers 
and  22  %  of  all  failures  among  men  teachers.  Miss 
Cleda  Moses 1  studied  the  causes  of  failure  among  high 
school  teachers,  collecting  data  regarding  205  cases,  and 
discovering  that  weakness  in  discipline,  while  a  frequent 
cause  of  failure,  is  not  proportionately  so  significant  here 
as  among  elementary  teachers,  —  a  conclusion  that  har- 
monizes with  the  results  of  the  "  merit  "  studies  noted 
above. 

The  Alleged  Advantages  of  Youth  and  Inexperience  in 
Teaching.  —  As  has  been  suggested,  youth  and  inexperi- 
ence are  not  without  their  advantages  as  parts  of  the 
teacher's  equipment.  The  young  teacher,  Professor 
O'Shea2  says,  "will  make  mistakes  due  to  inexperience, 
but  he  will  exhibit  an  enthusiasm  and  freshness  and 
vigor  and  optimism  which  will  go  far  to  compensate 
for  lack  of  experience."  In  so  far  as  disciplinary  troubles 
are  concerned,  however,  the  balance  is  decidedly  against 
youth  and  inexperience,  even  granting  the  advantages 
to  which  Professor  O'Shea  refers.  Enthusiasm,  vigor, 
freshness,  and  optimism  are  not  the  prerogatives  of 
adolescent  boys  and  girls  alone.  With  a  reasonable 

1  School  and  Home  Education,  January,  1914. 

2  In  Wisconsin  Journal  of  Education,  June,  1914,  p.  154. 


28  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

degree  of  maturity,  enthusiasm  can  still  be  engendered, 
but  there  is  no  known  way  of  putting  old  heads  on  young 
shoulders.  Too  many  teachers  lose  their  freshness  and 
their  optimism  as  they  grow  in  years  and  experience, 
but  this  is  not  entirely  the  fault  of  the  years  or  of  the 
experience ;  it  is  often  due  to  the  unfortunate  conditions 
under  which  their  work  must  be  done. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Add  to  the  list  given  in  the  text  characteristic  symptoms 
of  an  unruly  school  spirit.     What  are  the  most  common  ex- 
pressions of  this  unruly  spirit  ? 

2.  In  your  own  school  experience,  has  harshness  or  indul- 
gence been   the  more  disastrous  factor  in  breaking  down, 
or  preventing  the  development  of,  a  wholesome  "fashion"  of 
good  order  ? 

3.  Among  the  "spoiled"  children  of  your  acquaintance, 
what  factors  operating  in  homes  of  the  children  seem  to  have 
been  primarily  responsible  for  "  spoiling  "  them? 

4.  Compare  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  a  teach- 
ing population  one  fourth  of  which  is  made  up  of  very  young 
and  inexperienced  members.     What   measures  would  you 
suggest  for  insuring  a  larger  proportion  of  mature  and  ex- 
perienced teachers  in  our  schools  ? 

5.  Contrast  from  your  own  experience  in  school  the  work 
of  the  inexperienced  and  the  experienced  teachers.     From 
which  group  do  you  now  feel  that  you  received  the  greater 
benefit?    In  general,  which  group  did  you  "like"  the  better? 
Which  group  had  the  less  trouble  with  problems  of  discipline 
and  order? 


CHAPTER  HI 

THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:   ITS  SPECIFIC  CAUSES 

IN  the  last  chapter,  some  of  the  general  conditions 
which  favor  the  development  of  an  unruly  spirit  in  a 
group  of  pupils  were  discussed.  It  is  now  essential  to 
consider  the  more  specific  causes  of  this  spirit  and  partic- 
ularly the  practices  of  the  individual  teacher  which  are 
likely  to  encourage  the  unfortunate  attitude. 

The  Teacher's  Personality.  —  The  word  "  personality  " 
is  one  that  is  commonly  used  in  discussions  of  good 
and  poor  teaching.  In  some  discussions  of  educational 
problems,  indeed,  all  virtues  and  vices  are  referred  to 
this  factor :  everything  is  due  to  the  "  personality  " 
of  the  teacher.  Certainly  in  accounting  for  successes 
and  failures  in  discipline,  the  word  looms  large.  It  is 
well,  therefore,  to  inquire  somewhat  minutely  into  the 
meaning  of  this  important  term,  and  especially  to  deter- 
mine typical  expressions  of  "  personality "  that  are 
unfavorable  to  discipline  and  order. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  personality  as  commonly 
used  in  reference  to  a  teacher's  characteristics  is  a  very 
complex  thing  —  so  complex  that  it  will  perhaps  defy  any 
attempt  toward  a  helpful  analysis.  The  critics  of  educa- 
tional theory  lay  heavy  emphasis  upon  the  intangible 
character  of  this  and  other  factors  with  which  the  student 

29 


30  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

of  education  must  deal,  maintaining  that  these  factors  are 
so  complex  and  so  elusive  that  an  attempt  to  unravel  the 
tangles  only  results  in  artificial  simplifications  that  do 
more  harm  than  good.  Some,  indeed,  would  maintain 
that  the  factors  which  go  to  make  one  successful  or  unsuc- 
cessful in  teaching  are  not  to  be  modified  by  experience 
and  training,  —  that  one  can  never  "  learn  "  to  teach, 
but  must  have  the  teaching  instinct  as  an  innate  trait. 
These  critics,  however,  overlook  the  important  fact  that 
teaching  ability  does  improve  with  experience ;  in  some 
way  or  another,  the  characteristics  that  make  for  success 
and  efficiency  are  acquired  or  "  learned."  The  problem 
of  those  who  train  teachers  is  very  largely  one  of  finding 
out  what  characteristics  or  capacities  need  improvement 
and  then  to  arrange  some  typical  experiences  that  will 
work  toward  the  desired  betterment.  But  in  order  to 
proceed  in  this  rational  way,  the  factors  and  qualities 
that  have  been  assumed  to  be  intangible  and  unanalyz- 
able  must  be  split  up  into  simpler  elements.  It  is  useless 
to  talk  about  improving  one's  "  teaching  personality  " 
unless  the  ingredients  of  personality  are  known.  One 
must  at  least  attempt  an  analysis. 

The  Important  Elements  in  the  Teacher's  Personality. 
-  What,  then,  are  the  elements  of  a  good  teaching  per- 
sonality and  of  a  bad  teaching  personality  ?    One  serious 
attempt  has  been  made  to  answer  this  question.     F.  L. 
Clapp l  secured  from  one  hundred  experienced  school 

1  In  an  unpublished  study  on  file  in  the  library  of  the  University  of 
Illinois. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL   (CONTINUED)  31 

superintendents  and  principals  —  men  who  had  had  wide 
experience  in  selecting  and  training  teachers  —  lists  of 
the  ten  specific  qualities  that,  in  their  opinion,  went  to 
make  up  a  good  teaching  personality.  As  one  would 
expect,  the  replies  included  a  wide  variety  of  these 
specific  qualities.  In  fact,  almost  every  imaginable  trait 
or  characteristic  found  a  place  in  the  aggregate  list. 
Most  of  these  qualities,  however,  were  mentioned  by 
only  one  or  two  individuals;  comparatively  few  were 
found  in  all  of  the  separate  lists.  But  there  were  ten 
qualities  which  found  a  place  in  a  large  number  of  lists, 
and  these  ten  in  the  order  of  their  frequency,  were  the 
following : 

1.  Sympathy.  6.  Enthusiasm. 

2.  Personal  appearance.  7.  Scholarship. 

3.  Address.  8.  Vitality. 

4.  Sincerity.  9.  Fairness. 

5.  Optimism.  10.  Reserve  or  Dignity. 

~~  -> 

These  ten  qualities,  then,  represent  the  composite 
judgment  of  one  hundred  experienced  schoolmen  as  to 
the  composition  of  the  "  teaching  personality."  This 
method  of  analysis,  however,  gives  suggestive  but 
scarcely  trustworthy  results.  A  superintendent  of  schools 
always  applies  his  notion  of  "  personality  "  in  "  sizing 
up"  the  qualifications  of  applicants  for  teaching  posi- 
tions, but  the  notion  that  he  applies  is  the  result  rather  of 
a  "general  impression"  than  of  careful  analysis.  When, 
therefore,  he  is  asked  what  he  means  by  personality,  he  is 


32  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

likely  to  answer  in  terms  of  what,  in  his  opinion,  ought 
to  be  included  rather  than  in  terms  of  what  he  actually 
has  in  mind  when  he  applies  the  notion  hi  choosing 
teachers. 

In  order  to  overcome  this  tendency,  Mr.  Clapp  re- 
sorted to  an  ingenious  device.  He  asked  one  hundred 
forty  superintendents  and  principals  to  list  their  six 
best  teachers,  first  in  the  order  of  "  general  teaching 
personality  "  (ranking  as  Number  One  the  teacher  with 
the  best  personality,  as  Number  Two  the  next  best,  and 
so  on),  and  then  to  list  these  same  teachers  in  the  order 
of  their  "  sympathy,"  their  "  personal  appearance," 
and  so  on  through  the  ten  subordinate  qualities  that  his 
first  investigation  had  revealed.  In  this  way,  he  was 
able  to  secure  what  might  be  termed  "  unconscious 
analyses  "  revealing  pretty  accurately  just  how  these 
ten  qualities  operated  in  the  actual  judgment  of  super- 
intendents regarding  the  personalities  of  their  teachers. 

When  he  had  completed  the  task  of  equating  these 
various  rankings,  Mr.  Clapp  found  that  the  specific 
qualities  which  go  to  make  up  the  teaching  personality, 
as  this  term  is  used  in  judging  teachers,  stood  actually, 
not  in  the  order  represented  by  his  first  table,  but  in  a 
somewhat  different  arrangement,  as  follows  : 

1.  Address.  6.  Fairness. 

2.  Personal  appearance.  7.  Sincerity. 

3.  Optimism.  8.  Sympathy. 

4.  Reserve.  9.  Vitality. 

5.  Enthusiasm.  10.  Scholarship. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL   (CONTINUED)  33 

The  important  result  of  this  study  is  the  evidence  that 
it  offers  against  the  fatalistic  notion  that  the  important 
factors  in  the  teacher's  personality  are  not  improvable 
through  the  discipline  of  experience  and  training.  There 
are  undoubtedly  some  individuals  who  could  never 
improve  their  manner  of  meeting  people  (their  "  ad- 
dress "),  and  there  are  others,  perhaps,  who  could  never 
make  their  "  personal  appearance "  more  attractive. 
Still  others,  it  is  clear,  are  natural  pessimists,  and  neither 
experience  nor  training  nor  inspiration  could  transform 
their  gloom  and  depression  into  "  optimism  "  and  "  en- 
thusiasm." Still  others  are  naturally  undignified  and 
can  have  no  commanding  influence  over  their  fellows. 
They  lack  "  reserve  "  and  can  never  create  it.  Some, 
too,  are  naturally  unfair,  or  weak  in  vitality,  or  deficient 
in  sympathy.  But,  after  all  acknowledgment  has  been 
made  to  the  fatalists,  it  must  still  be  admitted  that 
most  individuals  can  change  and  improve  these  various 
qualities.  Knowing  what  factors  "  count  "  in  a  teaching 
personality,  the  beginning  teacher,  under  wise  supervision, 
may  adopt  measures  that  will  work  what  might  seem  at  the 
outset  to  be  little  less  than  a  miracle  of  transformation.1 

The  Qualities  of  Personality  Important  in  Discipline.  — 
It  is  impossible  to  say,  in  the  absence  of  an  extended 
investigation,  which  of  the  above  qualities  are  most 
important  from  the  standpoint  of  disciplinary  ability. 
It  is  reasonable  to  infer,  however,  that  "  reserve,"  "  en- 

1  Mr.  Clapp  found  very  clear  evidence  that  both  experience  and 
training  had  a  positive  effect  in  improving  the  "teaching  personality." 


34  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

thusiasm,"  "  fairness,"  "  sincerity,"  "  sympathy,"  and 
"  vitality  "  are  especially  significant  from  this  point  of 
view.  The  teacher  who  is  noisy,  boisterous,  and  un- 
dignified is  more  than  likely  to  incite  these  qualities  in 
his  or  her  pupils.  The  teacher  who  lacks  enthusiasm 
will  probably  fail  in  all  phases  of  his  work,  but  his  dis- 
cipline is  particularly  likely  to  suffer.  Unfairness  is  a 
notorious  stimulus  to  intentional  disorder,  and  insin- 
cerity is  fatal  to  teaching  efficiency  at  every  point. 
Vitality  as  evidenced  by  alertness  and  "  energy  "  is  like- 
wise a  positive  factor  in  discipline ;  of  the  ten  factors  in 
the  list,  it  is  perhaps  the  one  that  is  least  amenable  to 
improvement  through  systematic  training,  —  although 
where  lack  of  vitality  is  due  to  discouragement,  mal- 
nutrition, insufficient  sleep,  overwork,  or  overworry, 
the  remedial  measures  are  certainly  at  hand. 

Lack  of  sympathy  for  childhood  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  prime  causes  of  disciplinary  difficulties.  It  com- 
monly reveals  itself  in  a  lack  of  rapport  or  mutual  under- 
standing. There  is,  between  the  teacher  and  the  taught, 
a  gulf  or  chasm  that  is  quite  obvious  to  the  experienced 
onlooker.  Both  teacher  and  pupil  are  self-conscious, 
one  setting  himself  over  against  the  other  as  a  natural 
enemy.  The  condition  is  frequently  well  known  to 
the  teacher,  and  the  consciousness  of  his  failure  intensifies 
the  seriousness  of  the  situation,  making  it  all  but  im- 
possible for  him  to  work  naturally  and  spontaneously. 
Troubles  consequently  "  grow  upon  themselves  " ;  one 
difficulty  gives  rise  to  another;  and  each  adds  its  in- 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL    (CONTINUED)  35 

crement  of  estrangement  to  the  unfortunate  attitude 
already  existing.  This  is  not  "  lack  of  sympathy " 
if  we  mean  by  that  phrase  an  inherent  carelessness  upon 
the  part  of  the  teacher  regarding  his  pupils  and  their 
progress.  It  may,  indeed,  be  very  far  from  this.  The 
teacher  may  desire  intensely  to  do  his  work  well;  he 
may  crave  the  affection  and  confidence  of  his  pupils; 
and  the  fact  that  affection  and  confidence  do  not  crown 
his  efforts  depresses  and  worries  him. 

Where  this  situation  can  be  remedied  (and  it  is  the 
writer's  belief  that  appropriate  measures  will  relieve  nine 
cases  out  of  every  ten),  the  treatment  first  indicated  is 
to  transform  both  the  attitude  of  the  pupils  and  the 
attitude  of  the  teacher.  The  subjective,  personal 
feelings  of  distrust  must  be  broken  up  and  forgotten 
through  absorption  in  objective  matters.  The  various 
means  that  may  be  employed  toward  this  end  will  be 
considered  in  a  later  chapter.1 

What  a  pupil  understands  to  be  a  sympathetic  teacher  is 
important  in  this  connection.  W.  F.  Book2  collected  data 
from  582  high  school  pupils  touching  this  question.  The 
following  qualities  are  given  in  the  order  of  their  impor- 
tance as  indicated  by  the  number  of  times  they  were  men- 
tioned in  the  replies;  the  figures  in  parentheses  represent 
the  number  of  "votes"  for  each  group  of  related  qualities : 

i.  Kind,  forgiving,  and  generous;  or,  stated  negatively, 
never  rude,  harsh,  sarcastic,  or  given  to  ridicule.  (144.) 

1  See  ch.  iv. 

2  "  The  High  School  Teacher  from  the  Pupil's  Point  of  View," 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  September,  1905,  pp.  239  ff. 


36  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

2.  Pleasant,  cheerful,  good-natured,  happy,  jolly,  even- 
tempered;    or,  never  cross  or  unpleasant,  never  scolded, 
criticized  harshly,  or  continually  found  fault.     (112.) 

3.  Patient,  considerate,  thoughtful  of  the  feelings  of  his 
pupils,  reasonable;    not  "cranky,"  over-particular,  or  un- 
reasonably strict.     (104.) 

4.  Firm,  decisive,  business-like,  and  strict.     (59.) 

5.  Inspiring,  easy  to  approach.     (46.) 

6.  Serious,  earnest,  unassuming,  rather  dignified,  quiet. 
(26.) 

^-•v 

Vacillation  or  weakness  of  the  will  is  another  trait  of 
personality  that  is  a  frequent  cause  of  disciplinary 
troubles.  This  may  be  incurable,  an  innate  weakness 
of  character ;  but  it  is  often  the  unfortunate  result 
of  early  failure  or  of  uncertainty  upon  the  part  of  the 
teacher  with  regard  to  his  responsibility  and  his  authority. 
The  general  conditions  described  in  the  preceding  chapter 
are  especially  likely  to  encourage  vacillation  and  gradu- 
ally to  weaken  the  moral  stamina  of  the  teacher.  When 
a  community  refuses  to  support  the  schools  in  cases  of 
discipline  and  especially  when  the  adults  "  side  "  with 
the  pupils  against  the  school  authorities,  a  severe  handi- 
cap is  placed  upon  the  efforts  of  the  teachers ,  and  those 
who  remain  firm  and  persistent  are  likely  to  suffer.  At 
the  same  time,  an  unfortunate  premium  is  placed  upon 
those  who,  through  flattery  or  cajolery,  curry  favor 
and  cultivate  "  popularity  "  among  pupils  and  parents, 
thus  adding  to  the  burdens  of  the  self-respecting  teacher, 
who  can  never  demean  himself  by  practices  of  this 
type.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  schools  are  in  charge 


THE    UNRULY    SCHOOL    (CONTINUED)  37 

of  a  weak  superintendent  who  is  so  anxious  to  safe- 
guard his  position  that  he  also  takes  sides  with  the 
pupils  against  the  classroom  teacher  and  thus  makes 
it  very  difficult  for  the  latter  to  enforce  reasonable  re- 
quirements. In  all  of  these  cases,  vacillation  will  be 
encouraged,  and  the  results  are  fairly  certain  to  spell 
disaster. 

When  the  vacillation  is  the  result  of  external  condi- 
tions, a  mere  change  in  these  conditions  will  commonly 
work  a  transformation.  A  little  whole-hearted  support 
from  a  superintendent  or  principal ;  one  or  two  success- 
ful experiences  in  which  vigor  and  firmness  have  gained 
the  desired  end ;  the  renewal  of  one's  self-confidence  and 
good  spirits  by  a  taste  of  triumph,  —  any  one  of  these 
factors  may  bridge  the  chasm  of  failure  that  seems  at 
times  to  yawn  directly  at  one's  feet.  The  "  do-or-die  " 
attitude  is  often  not  only  valuable,  but  absolutely  es- 
sential in  cases  of  this  sort. 

And  these  factors,  also,  will  not  be  without  their 
beneficial  influence  upon  the  teacher  who  is  naturally 
weak  and  vacillating.  There  are  some  men  and  women, 
of  course,  who  have  an  abnormally  intense  instinctive 
tendency  to  yield  to  a  more  vigorous  personality. 

What  McDougall 1  calls  the  instinct  of  "  subjection  " 

> 

is  strongly  marked  in  their  original  nature.  Quite 
naturally  and  instinctively  they  fawn  and  quail  when 
threatened.  And  a  strong,  vigorous,  domineering  per- 
sonality is  quite  likely  to  be  found  in  a  group  of 
1  W.  McDougall,  Social  Psychology,  London,  1910,  pp.  62  ff. 


38  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

children  at  almost  every  level  of  development.  Here, 
for  example,  is  a  boy  small  in  stature  and  young  in  years, 
who  has  ruled  his  little  world  from  infancy.  He  has 
gained  confidence  in  his  ability  to  bring  to  the  point  of 
capitulation  not  only  his  fellows,  but  his  elders.  He  has 
learned  the  large  strategic  value  of  vigorous  self-assertion. 
A  teacher  who  is  naturally  weak  will  just  as  naturally 
feel  the  power  of  this  self-assertive  and  self-confident 
personality,  even  though  it  be  a  child's  personality,  and 
the  tendency  to  yield  will  be  the  more  irresistible  the 
weaker  the  teacher.  And  yet  strenuous  measures,  even 
under  these  conditions,  may  bring  about  a  new  era  in  the 
teacher's  life.  The  weakness  represents  a  tendency,  a 
"  diathesis,"  which,  like  an  inborn  tendency  to  tuber- 
culosis or  insanity,  must  be  met  by  a  process  of  self- 
discipline  more  vigorous  and  more  prolonged  than  the 
normal  individual  would  need  to  employ.  But  if  hered- 
itary weaknesses  of  other  types  can  be  counteracted  by 
appropriate  measures,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
an  inherited  "  weakness  of  the  will  "  may  not  be  similarly 
overcome.  And  here  it  is  especially  comforting  to  note 
that  success  "  grows  upon  itself."  . 

Procrastination  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  specific 
expression  of  weakness  of  the  will.  The  young  teacher 
is  likely  to  feel  uncertain  hi  his  judgments  of  what 
constitutes  a  lapse  from  discipline.  He  is  particularly 
likely  to  overlook  the  first  expressions  of  a  mischievous 
or  unruly  spirit,  hoping  that  if  these  are  passed  by,  his 
pupils  will  later  settle  down  to  aggressive  work.  He 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL   (CONTINUED)  39 

lacks  firmness  in  his  initial  admonitions  and  directions, 
and  consequently  misses  the  best  of  opportunities  for 
getting  his  administration  of  the  school  or  the  classroom 
started  aright. 

With  experience  the  teacher  acquires  an  effective 
skill  in  "  sensing  "  disturbances  and  knows  almost  in- 
tuitively whether  this  or  that  expression  upon  the  part 
of  his  pupils  is  inimical  to  good  discipline.  A  great 
many  little  things  are  overlooked  or  neglected,  al- 
though not  unnoticed,  by  the  expert  teacher.  The 
beginner  is  almost  certain  to  misplace  the  emphasis; 
but,  in  general,  it  is  safer  at  the  outset  to  err  on  the  side 
of  rigor  than  on  the  side  of  leniency. 

It  is  the  teacher  with  an  inherited  tendency  to  in- 
decision and  weak  will  who  is  most  likely  to  be  ship- 
wrecked through  this  tendency  to  let  initial  disorder  pass 
unnoticed.  The  following  case  is  typical. 

A  young  woman  of  twenty-one  was  a  member  of  the  senior 
class  in  a  normal  school.  She  had  completed  the  classwork 
in  the  academic  and  professional  subjects  with  a  commendable 
record,  and  was  sent  to  the  training  school  for  her  semester 
of  practice  teaching.  The  superintendent  recognized  her  at 
once  as  having  a  "weak"  teaching  personality.  He  placed 
her  in  charge  of  a  fifth-grade  section  and  carefully  watched 
her  work.  She  made  absolutely  no  impression  upon  her 
pupils  and  the  classroom  quickly  became  unmanageable  un- 
less a  supervisor  were  present.  The  student-teacher  was 
warned  of  her  defects  and  of  the  disastrous  consequences  that 
impended,  but  all  to  no  avail.  At  the  end  of  three  or  four 
weeks  it  was  necessary  to  deprive  her  of  her  teaching  privi- 


40  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

leges.  She  was  placed  "on  observation"  for  the  remainder 
of  the  semester,  spending  most  of  her  time  in  watching  the 
work  of  two  or  three  very  expert  teachers,  and  discussing 
this  work  with  the  superintendent. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  next  semester,  she  was  placed  in 
charge  of  another  practice  section.  By  dint  of  strenuous 
supervision,  she  completed  the  term  of  teaching,  and  at  the 
close  was  given  her  diploma,  although  with  so  many  mis- 
givings on  the  part  of  the  superintendent  that  he  refused  to 
recommend  her  for  a  position  (a 'type  of  temporizing  that  is 
not  at  all  uncommon  in  teachers'  training  schools).  She 
secured  a  position  upon  her  own  initiative,  however.  (The 
"stamp"  of  the  normal  school  enabled  her  to  do  this,  school 
boards  naturally  concluding  that  a  diploma  from  a  normal 
school  meant  an  indorsement  of  teaching  ability.)  At  the 
close  of  a  month  her  new  superintendent  told  her  that  it  was 
hopeless  for  her  to  continue.  She  spent  the  remainder  of  the 
year  at  home,  and  secured  another  position  for  the  following 
year.  This  position  she  retained  for  one  semester,  being  ad- 
vised to  resign  at  the  end  of  that  period.  She  waited  another 
half  year  and  then  secured  a  third  appointment.  She  wrote 
to  the  normal  school  toward  the  close  of  the  year  "I  am  going 
to  finish  the  year  here,  but  I  shall  not  have  a  reappoint- 
ment.  ...  I  know  where  the  trouble  is.  It  is  in  the  way 
I  begin  the  very  first  week  or  two,  and  I  have  resolved  that 
next  year,  if  I  am  fortunate  enough  to  get  another  position, 
I  will  have  good  discipline  the  first  of  the  year  if  I  do  not  do 
any  teaching  for  ten  weeks." 

The  simple  lesson  of  the  "  right  start  "  had  been 
taught  to  this  teacher  before  she  went  into  the  practice 
school.  It  was  enforced  there,  and  illustrated  by  her 
initial  failures.  It  was  written  large  across  the  successive 


THE     UNRULY    SCHOOL    (CONTINUED)  41 

disasters  of  the  following  years.  The  lessons  that  cost 
so  much  as  this  are  undoubtedly  effective  in  the  end, 
but  the  price  is  paid  in  material  that  is  far  too  precious 
to  be  needlessly  wasted. 

/f)  Ungoverned  temper  of  the  "  explosive  "  type  represents 
a  defect  in  teaching  quite  opposite  to  vacillation  and 
procrastination.  Here,  again,  a  teacher  may  be  the  victim 
of  hereditary  tendencies  that  will  make  this  defect 
very  difficult  to  remedy ;  but  the  fatalistic  notion  that 
quick  temper  is  not  amenable  to  control  is  just  as  falla- 
cious as  the  notion  that  an  inherent  tendency  to  vacilla- 
tion cannot  be  overcome.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
discipline,  the  ungoverned  temper  represents  the  acme 
of  danger ;  and  the  more  so,  perhaps,  because  a  violent 
display  of  temper  may  result  in  an  apparent  victory  for 
the  teacher.  That  is,  the  pupils  may  be  cowed  into 
submission  in  a  trice  and  the  teacher  may  be  encouraged 
to  repeat  the  operation  until  it  has  become  a  most  dis- 
astrous habit.  We  are  confident  that  these  occasional 
triumphs  are  in  no  sense  a  justification  for  abrogating 
one  of  the  first  principles  of  discipline.,  —  namely,  the 
maintenance  of  a  thoroughly  objective  and  judicial 
attitude  upon  the  part  of  the  teacher. 

Professor  William  Lyon  Phelps  in  his  very  sensible 
discussion  of  discipline  *  states  the  case  picturesquely  : 

"The  teacher  should  never  lose  his  temper  in  the  presence 
of  a  class.  If  a  man,  he  may  take  refuge  in  profane  solilo- 
quies ;  if  a  woman,  she  may  follow  the  example  of  one  sweet- 

1  Teaching  in  School  and  College,  New  York,  1912,  p.  23. 


42  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

faced  and  apparently  tranquil  girl  —  go  out  into  the  yard 
and  gnaw  a  post ;  but  there  must  be  no  display  of  rage  before 
the  clear  eyes  of  children.  When  I  taught  school,  there  were 
many  times  when  the  indifference,  stupidity,  flippancy,  or 
silliness  of  the  class  brought  me  to  such  a  pitch  of  rage,  that 
I  dared  not  trust  myself  to  speak.  I  would  clutch  the  arms 
of  my  chair,  and  swallow  foam  until  I  felt  complete  self- 
command  ;  then  I  would  speak  with  quiet  gravity.  The  boys 
all  saw  what  was  the  matter  with  me,  and  learned  something 
not  in  the  book." 

Tactlessness  should  undoubtedly  be  listed  as  a  defect 
of  personality,  although  it  does  not  appear  in  the  group 
of  specific  qualities  collated  by  Mr.  Clapp.  In  Mr.  Lit- 
tler's  investigation,  however,  it  appears  as  a  recognized 
cause  of  an  appreciable  proportion  of  the  failures  among 
elementary  school  teachers  (between  three  and  four  per 
cent  of  all  the  failures  reported  were  ascribed  to  this 
defect),  and  it  is  undoubtedly  a  contributing  cause  in 
many  cases  where  failure  is  reported  as  due  to  weak 
discipline. 

Here  once  more  we  are  face  to  face  with  a  complex 
factor  that  must  depend  in  some  measure  upon  native 
tendencies.  There  are  some  men  and  women  who  are 
almost  instinctively  diplomatic ;  they  seem  to  "  sense  " 
immediately  the  elements  in  a  situation  that  are  likely 
to  arouse  needless  antagonism,  and  to  adjust  themselves 
to  the  situation  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  these  difficulties. 
Upon  the  whole,  however,  while  differences  in  native 
endowment  will,  here  as  elsewhere,  constitute  an  element 
of  uncertainty  in  our  calculations,  it  is  fairly  clear  that 


THE    UNRULY    SCHOOL    (CONTINUED)  43 

this  ability  to  "  sense  "  the  critical  elements  in  dealing 
with  men  and  women  and  children  grows  with  experi- 
ence, and  it  is  conceivable  that  one  might  analyze  the 
processes  that  are  involved  and  determine  just  what 
steps  are  essential  to  effect  a  marked  improvement. 
By  "  taking  thought  "  one  may  certainly  learn  to  avoid 
the  grosser  errors. 

What  are  some  of  the  pitfalls  of  tactlessness  that  beset 
the  path  of  the  young  teacher  in  dealing  with  disciplinary 
situations?  Undoubtedly  most  of  the  difficulties  of 
this  type  may  be  traced  to  "  hurt  feelings,"  —  needlessly 
"  hurt  feelings  "  we  should  add,  because  it  is  conceiv- 
able that  feelings  sometimes  must  be  hurt  if  necessary 
reforms  are  to  be  brought  about.  The  teacher  will  have 
in  every  class  a  certain  proportion  of  hypersensitive  chil- 
dren, and  to  deal  with  these  children  effectively  will  be  to 
avoid  a  goodly  number  of  disciplinary  difficulties.  This 
type  of  child  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  section,1  and  sug- 
gestions will  there  be  made  as  to  the  type  of  treatment 
that  experience  has  shown  to  be  effective. 

But  there  are  general,  often  habitual,  practices  that 
are  essentially  tactless.  The  storming,  blustering  atti- 
tude is  tactless,  and  especially  the  threatening  attitude, 
for  this  simply  invites  trouble  that  otherwise  never 
would  occur.  A  cardinal  rule  of  school  management 
is  to  have  few  rules,  and  these  very  specific  and  relent- 
lessly enforced.  In  general,  a  rule  or  a  restriction  should 
not  be  enunciated  until  the  need  for  it  has  been  shown, 

1  See  ch.  xii. 


44  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

although  there  are  exceptions  to  this  precaution  —  as, 
for  example,  when  the  first  snow  of  the  season  will  tempt 
every  normal  boy  to  throw  snowballs  without  due  regard 
to  the  fragile  nature  of  schoolhouse  windows  or  the 
temper  of  passers-by. 

A  prime  condition  of  tactless  blunders  is  the  failure 
upon  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  get  the  pupil's  point  of 
view  regarding  apparently  trivial  and  unimportant  things. 
Children  are  inherently  jealous;  for  the  teacher  to  dis- 
play favoritism  in  an  ostentatious  way  is  to  court  dis- 
ciplinary disaster,  —  as  well  as  to  commit  an  injustice 
toward  the  pupils  who  receive  this  undue  attention. 
To  expect  the  teacher  to  have  the  same  measure  of 
regard  and  affection  for  all  of  his  pupils  is  to  expect 
the  impossible,  but  so  far  as  the  expression  of  this  regard 
is  concerned,  it  is  not  difficult  to  distribute  one's  favors 
equitably. 

Tactlessness  often  expresses  itself  in  failure  to  take 
advantage  of  dominant  tendencies  among  the  pupils 
in  connection  with  the  fulfillment  of  certain  require- 
ments. There  arises,  of  course,  an  important  ethical 
question  in  this  connection :  Should  the  teacher  go  out 
of  his  way  to  make  a  duty  pleasurable  ?  —  a  question 
that  we  must  face  when  we  consider  in  detail  the  re- 
lation of  discipline  to  the  doctrine  of  interest.  But 
it  is  safe  to  say  here  that  many  disciplinary  difficulties 
can  be  legitimately  avoided  by  a  tactful  appeal  to  in- 
terests and  desires.  Tom  Sawyer,  in  getting  his  fellows 
to  whitewash  the  fence,  illustrates  the  type  of  tactfal 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL    (CONTINUED)  45 

treatment  that  is  especially  effective  with  children  and 
with  adolescents.  To  make  a  duty  appear  in  the  light 
of  a  privilege  may  be  questioned  on  ethical  grounds,  but 
one  cannot  deny  its  practical  efficacy. 

A  five-year-old  boy  disliked  to  go  to  kindergarten  at  the 
outset.  He  rebelled  strenuously  on  a  certain  morning,  and 
a  troublesome  experience  seemed  to  be  in  prospect.  A 
neighbor  appeared  on  the  scene.  Her  daughter,  Mary,  aged 
four,  was  to  start  kindergarten  that  morning;  the  mother 
could  not  take  her ;  a  street-car  track  was  to  be  crossed,  and 
she  did  not  wish  her  to  go  unattended ;  would  Dick  — 
But  Dick  was  near  by  and  had  heard  the  conversation.  "I'll 
take  care  of  Mary,"  he  said  at  once,  swelling  with  pride  at  the 
thought  of  the  responsibility  that  would  be  delegated  to  him ; 
"  I  shan't  let  anything  hurt  her.  I'll  take  care  of  her."  The 
rebellious  spirit  disappeared  in  an  instant.  Taking  Mary 
to  kindergarten  was  the  privilege  that  made  Dick  enthusiastic 
about  his  own  attendance  until  the  initial  distaste  was  over- 
come, and  the  school,  so  to  speak,  attracted  him  in  its  own 
right. 

Tactlessness  in  dealing  with  parents  and  with  other 
members  of  the  community  almost  always  results  in 
weakening  the  teacher's  authority  over  his  pupils,  and 
consequently  serves  to  aggravate  disciplinary  troubles. 
Another  recognized  rule  of  school  management  is  never 
to  lose  one's  temper  in  dealing  with  parents,  no  matter 
how  great  the  provocation.  One  can  afford  to  spend 
much  time  and  energy  in  explaining  to  parents  the 
nature  and  the  educational  justification  of  the  require- 
ments made  by  the  school,  —  sometimes  to  the  extent 


46  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

of  neglecting  one's  class  work  for  a  half-hour  period, 
but  one  cannot  afford  to  meet  an  irate  parent  with 
angry  words  or  to  return  insult  or  innuendo  in  kind. 
Silence  and  forbearance  are  shining  virtues  in  desperate 
situations  of  this  type. 

Minor  Causes  of  the  Unruly  School.  —  In  addition 
to  the  factors  of  "personality  "  discussed  in  the  preced- 
ing sections,  there  are  certain  specific  conditions  that 
have  a  vital  relation  to  school  discipline.  Some  of  these 
are  undoubtedly  closely  concerned  with  the  personality 
of  the  teacher,  but  there  are  good  reasons  for  considering 
them  separately  inasmuch  as  they  will  commonly  yield 
to  rather  simple  precautions. 

Mechanized  routine  is  among  the  most  important  of 
the  conditions  to  be  listed  here.  Disorder  and  confusion 
will  inevitably  grow'upon'themselves,  and  in  the  absence 
of  simple  rules  for^  the  performance  of  routine  tasks, 
duties,  and  movements,  disorder  and  confusion  are  in- 
evitable. The  writer  has  emphasized  in  another  place  l 
the  importance  of  initiating  immediately  upon  the  or- 
ganization of  a  school  or  a  class  the  little  specific  habits 
that  will  take  care  of  routine  matters.  If  each  pupil 
knows  at  the  outset  just  what  he  is  to  do  as  a  matter  of 
routine  and  how  he  is  to  do  it,  many  difficulties,  other- 
wise serious,  will  be  easily  avoided.  This  is  particularly 
true  in  large  schools  and  in  large  classes ;  but  no  matter 
how  small  the  school  or  the  class,  the  teacher  will  do 
well  to  bear  in  mind  the  advice  so  admirably  expressed 

1  Classroom  Management,  New  York,  1907,  ch.  iii. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL   (CONTINUED)  47 

by  Professor  Phelps :  "  Nothing  is  too  minute  or  too 
trivial  that  concerns  the  great  art  of  teaching."  1 

Reference  is  here  made  to  such  matters  as  line  formation  / 
(or,  where  lines  are  not  formed,  the  orderly  passing  of  the  ~J 
pupils  to  and  from  then*  classrooms);  the  disposal  of  hats 
and  wraps ;  passing  to  and  from  the  blackboard;  the 
orderly  arrangement  of  books  and  materials  in  desks  or  cab- 
inets ;  posture  in  sitting  at  desks ;  the  movements  that  are 
essential  in  changing  classes;  fire  drills;  and  similar  matters. 
Detailed  suggestions  for  organizing  these  routine  phases  of 
school  activity  are  given  in  the  writer's  Classroom  Manage- 
ment, the  emphasis  being  placed  upon  (i)  a  careful  prelimi- 
nary survey  of  the  conditions  before  the  school  is  organized  to 
determine  what  phases  of  routine  should  be  established  at 
the  outset,  and  (2)  the  value  of  getting  the  necessary  habits 
started  on  the  first  day,  giving  perhaps  two  or  three  formal 
exercises  in  the  different  movements. 

The  teacher's  voice  is  a  factor  of  large  importance  in"' 
discipline,  and,  hi  spite  of  the  apparent  difficulty  in 
modifying  the  "  natural  "  tendencies  in  speaking,  it  is  a 
factor  that  is  controllable  in  a  measure  seldom  recognized 
by  those  engaged  in  the  training  of  teachers.  The 
principal  evils  to  be  avoided  or  counteracted  are :  (i)  the 
shrill,  high-pitched,  rasping  voice ;  (2)  the  unnecessarily 
loud  or  "  noisy  "  voice ;  (3)  the  inarticulate  voice  which 
fails  to  enunciate  distinctly;  (4)  the  thin,  feeble  voice 
which  lacks  vigor  and  force;  and  (5)  the  monotonous 
voice  which  lulls  pupils  to  somnolence  through  lack  of 
emphasis.  By  "  taking  thought  "  each  one  of  these 
1  Teaching  in  School  and  College,  p.  15. 


48  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

defects  may  ordinarily  be  remedied,  at  least  in  part,  — • 
and  any  slightest  improvement  is  a  clear  gain.  The 
"  noisy  "  voice  is  perhaps  the  one  most  inimical  to 
order,  for,  by  suggestion,  it  gives  rise  to  noise  and  con- 
fusion throughout  the  classroom.  The  feeble  voice, 
'  the  inarticulate  voice,  and  the  monotonous  voice  are 
usually  amenable  to  treatment  through  appropriate  ex- 
ercises. 

A  clear  recognition  of  special  responsibility  is  especially 
important  in  a  large  school  where  disciplinary  functions 
must  be  divided  among  the  various  teachers,  —  each, 
perhaps,  taking  his  or  her  turn  in  supervising  play- 
grounds, toilet  rooms,  lunch  rooms,  and  the  like;  one 
being  delegated  (in  the  high  school  or  the  departmental 
grammar  school)  to  look  after  the  debating  clubs,  another 
the  orchestra,  another  the  athletic  organizations.  There 
is  indeed  abundant  justification  in  the  large  school  for 
appointing  special  teachers  to  devote  part  of  their  time 
to  such  duties  as  are  performed  in  the  large  universities 
by  the  deans  of  undergraduate  men  and  women.  Need- 
less to  say,  the  responsibilities  imposed  by  these  various 
types  of  supervisory  service  should  be  balanced  by  a 
lighter  teaching  program  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  the 
average  teacher.  There  is  no  condition  more  deplorable 
than  that  which  is  found  in  many  schools  where  the 
few  teachers  who  are  thoroughly  competent  to  take 
responsibility  for  the  nonscholastic  functions  are  over- 
loaded with  these  duties  without  a  corresponding  de- 
crease hi  their  teaching  programs. 


THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL   (CONTINUED)  49 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Compare  two  teachers  that  you  have  had  in  your  school 
experience,  one  with  a  "strong"  personality,  the  other  with  a 
relatively  "weak"  personality.     Write  down  as  many  traits 
or  characteristics  differentiating  the  two  as  occur  to  you  in 
making  the  contrast. 

2.  Compare  especially  the  methods  of  discipline  employed 
by  these  two  teachers.     Which  one  was  the  more  severe? 
the  more  relentless  in  applying  standards  ?  the  more  likable  ? 
the  more  enthusiastic?  the  more  sympathetic? 

3.  What  evidence  can  you  give  to  show  that  a  good  "  teach- 
ing personality"  may  be  acquired  by  one  who,  in  beginning 
teaching  work,  is  handicapped  by  a  relatively  "weak"  per- 
sonality ? 

4.  In  recalling  the  schoolfellows  of  your  early  school  days, 
can  you  find  instances  of  boys  or  girls  who  were  not  very 
forceful  among  their  fellows  —  who  were  perhaps  "nonen- 
tities "  or  ciphers  in  the  social  group  —  surprising  you  later 
by   their  achievements  and   attainments?    Can  you  find 
analogous  instances  on  the  other  side,  —  natural  "  leaders " 
who  later  became  "  nonentities  "? 

5.  Compare  two  individuals  of  your  acquaintance,  one  of 
whom  you  would  call  "strong  willed"  and  the  other  "weak 
willed."    In  what  characteristics  do  the  sharpest  contrasts 
lie  ?    If  you  were  the  weaker,  what  steps  would  you  take  to 
remedy  your  defects? 

6.  Give  from  your  own  experience  in  school  instances  of 
tactless  management  upon  the  part  of  teachers.     Give  analo- 
gous instances  of  tactful  management.     "Try  your  hand" 
at  a  definition  of  "tact." 

7.  What  phases  of  school  routine  are  likely  to  be  sources 
of  disciplinary  trouble  unless  steps  are  taken  thoroughly  to 
mechanize  the  necessary  movements? 


5O  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

8.  Ask  an  experienced  school  supervisor  whether  you  have 
a  good  teaching  voice.  If  you  find  that  it  is  defective,  experi- 
ment with  methods  of  correction.  For  example,  if  enuncia- 
tion is  faulty,  practice  reading  aloud  very  slowly ;  if  the 
voice  is  "thin"  or  weak,  try  the  effect  of  regular  breathing 
exercises ;  if  the  voice  is  "noisy,"  make  an  effort  to  speak  in 
a  low  tone  and  note  the  result. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:    (^4)  THE  IM- 
PORTANCE OF  THE  "OBJECTIVE"  ATTITUDE 

THE  two  preceding  chapters  have  dealt  with  the  con- 
ditions that  are  likely  to  give  rise  to  an  unruly  spirit 
among  pupils  and  students,,  and  have  attempted  to 
indicate  how  some  of  these  conditions  may  be  avoided, 
counteracted,  or  overcome ;  how,  in  other  words,  the 
development  of  an  unruly  spirit  may  be  prevented. 
Prevention  is  always  easier  than  cure;  but  there  are 
occasions  when  preventive  measures  come  too  late, 
and  when  efforts  of  another  type  are  needed.  As 
stated  hi  Chapter  II,  we  are  assuming  the  existence  of 
a  most  unfortunate  "  spirit "  among  the  pupils.  We 
are  assuming  that  a  bad  fashion  of  disorder,  scamped 
work,  and  disrespect  for  authority  has  become  fixed 
upon  a  school,  and  we  shall  presently  ask  how  this  un- 
favorable attitude  of  the  pupils  may  be  transformed, 
and  how  a  "  fashion  "  of  the  opposite  type  established. 
An  attempt  will  then  be  made  to  classify  some  of  the 
practices  that  have  been  successful  in  solving  this  diffi- 
cult problem,  but  first  of  all  an  important  word  needs 
to  be  said  regarding  the  attitude  of  the  teacher  who  is 
face  to  face  with  a  situation  of  this  type. 

51 


52  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

What  is  Meant  by  the  Objective  Attitude.  —  The 

words  "  objective,"  "  impersonal,"  "  detached,"  may 
be  employed  to  characterize  this  attitude.  The  chief 
danger  in  dealing  with  a  disciplinary  situation  is  that 
the  teacher's  attitude  will  be  subjective  and  personal. 
This,  at  all  costs,  it  must  not  be.  The  appropriate 
attitude  is  quite  analogous  to  that  of  the  physician  who 
is  treating  a  serious  illness  at  a  critical  stage ;  it  should 
not  be  analogous  to  that  of  the  warrior  who  is  waging  a 
life-and-death  contest  with  an  opposing  foe.  It  may 
be  that  something  akin  to  military  strategy  is  justified ; 
it  may  even  be  that  force  must  be  applied ;  but,  in 
either  case,  the  element  of  personal  feeling  or  animosity 
must  be  rigorously  excluded.  To  the  teacher,  the  dis- 
ciplinary situation  must  be  as  thoroughly  impersonal 
as  the  limitations  of  human  nature  will  permit;  other- 
wise his  assumption  of  authority  will  involve  injustice. 
Even  primitive  social  groups  recognize  that  neither 
party  to  a  personal  dispute  can  safely  be  intrusted 
with  the  power  to  settle  it,  —  or  to  dictate  the  penalty 
that  shall  be  imposed  upon  the  other.  When  the  dis- 
ciplinary situation  becomes  "  personal,"  therefore,  the 
teacher  has  lost  his  right  to  dictate  terms. 

The  objective  attitude  and  the  emphasis  of  the  im- 
personal relationship  will  not  preclude  sympathy,  but 
it  will  preclude  an  ineffective  emotionalism.  The 
physician  is  far  from  unsympathetic  with  his  patient, 
but  he  does  not  let  his  sympathy  blind  his  judgment, 
nor  does  he  interpret  the  stubbornness  of  the  illness 


THE    OBJECTIVE   ATTITUDE  53 

as  an  affront  to  his  dignity  or  a  reflection  upon  his  per- 
sonal character.  It  is  rather  an  opportunity  for  exer- 
cising his  keenest  professional  judgment  and  applying 
his  most  consummate  form  of  technical  skill.  The 
stubbornness  is  a  challenge  to  his  professional  self  and 
not  to  his  personal  self.  To  lose  his  self-confidence  and 
his  self-mastery  would  be  professional  suicide. 

The  teacher  or  the  principal  who  is  face  to  face  with 
an  antagonistic  school,  then,  will  have  taken  the  first 
step  toward  a  successful  issue  when  he  reads  his  own 
personal  ego  out  of  the  problem.  That  this  is  often 
hard  to  do  only  intensifies  the  necessity  of  doing  it. 
The  very  fact  that  a  group  of  unruly  children  will  in- 
stinctively do  everything  in  their  power  to  tantalize 
and  irritate  one  who  is  in  authority  over  them,  and 
fail  to  separate  the  official  from  the  individual,  makes 
redoubled  efforts  at  self-mastery  and  a  maintenance  of 
the  objective  attitude  the  more  essential  upon  the  part 
of  the  teacher.  It  is,  indeed,  extremely  difficult  not 
to  respond  personally  and  subjectively  to  a  situation 
that  is  continually  interpreted  by  others  in  a  personal 
and  subjective  way.1 

Obstacles  in  the  Way  of  the  Objective  Attitude.  - 
The  estrangement  between  pupils  and  teacher  is  not 

1  A  teacher  writing  eighty  years  ago  emphasized  the  danger  of  the 
subjective  attitude :  "  I  took  them  [the  pupils]  all  to  be  young  knaves 
at  the  very  opening  of  school,  and  made  laws  accordingly ;  and  what 
I  took  them  to  be,  many  of  them  slowly  became.  They  constantly 
watched  their  opportunity  to  evade  my  laws,  and  I  watched  my 
opportunity  to  detect  them,  and  enforce  the  penalty."  (Quoted  in 
Annals  of  Education,  Series  III,  vol.  v,  1835,  p.  27.) 


54  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

infrequently  intensified  by  the  attitude  of  the  public 
toward  the  work  of  teaching,  which  is  sometimes  so 
unsympathetic  as  to  render  the  teacher  uncomfortably 
self-conscious.  One  of  the  problems  of  education  is  to 
change  public  opinion  in  this  regard,  and  to  insure  for 
the  teacher  an  effective  "  professional  status."  Under 
present  conditions,  it  is  hard  for  the  average  man  to 
view  the  teacher  outside  of  the  classroom  as  he  views 
other  normal  men  and  women.  The  "  academic " 
atmosphere  seems  to  cling  more  closely  to  the  teacher 
in  his  nonscholastic  life  than  the  legal  atmosphere  clings 
to  the  lawyer  or  the  commercial  atmosphere  to  the 
business  man.  The  consciousness  of  this  handicap 
tends  to  make  the  teacher  ill  at  ease,  and  this  mental 
condition  renders  difficult  a  thoroughly  objective  and 
professional  attitude  toward  his  work. 

It  is  in  connection  with  disciplinary  difficulties  par- 
ticularly that  the  handicap  of  an  unsympathetic  public 
attitude  is  likely  to  be  most  strongly  felt.  The  serious- 
ness of  a  disciplinary  situation  is  often  unintelligible 
to  the  layman.  Why  "  mere  children  "  should  be  the 
cause  of  so  much  trouble  puzzles  him,  and  he  is  likely 
to  believe  the  teacher  to  be  inherently  weak  when,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  situation  that  is  being  faced  would 
test  the  tact  and  wisdom  of  the  keenest  intellect  and 
the  power  of  the  strongest  will.  Thus  the  teacher,  find- 
ing that  the  public  takes  his  or  her  troubles  very  lightly 
and  quite  unsympathetically,  is  likely  to  brood  over 
them  in  secret,  —  hiding  them  from  others  and  even 


THE   OBJECTIVE   ATTITUDE  55 

attempting  an  ostrich-like  essay  at  self-deception.  One 
result  of  this  is  often  found  in  the  failure  to  correct 
offenders  against  order,  and  this  is  serious  enough ;  but 
another  is  the  mental  worry  and  depression  which  the 
condition  brings  about  in  the  teacher  himself  or  herself. 

It  is  those  who  suffer  in  silence  that  suffer  most  keenly, 
and  if  the  Freudian  conception  of  mental  derangements 
has  done  nothing  else,  it  has  certainly  shown  the  vital 
necessity  for  getting  fears  and  worries  "  out  of  the 
system  "  through  pouring  one's  troubles  into  a  sym- 
pathetic ear.  Not  only  do  thousands  of  teachers  vol- 
untarily leave  public  school  service  each  year  because 
the  strain  is  too  severe  to  be  borne,  but  the  proportion 
who  break  down  in  service  is  alarmingly  large.  Not 
often  does  the  real  cause  of  most  of  these  tragedies  get 
into  the  public  press,  but  an  occasional  item  referring 
to  an  extreme  case  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  innumer- 
able cases,  perhaps  equally  serious,  that  do  not  result 
in  publicity. 

The  following  editorial  from  the  Journal  of  Educa- 
tion (Boston)  certainly  gives  one  reason  for  asking 
whether  the  people  are  treating  as  they  should  the 
teachers  of  the  people's  schools  : 

"In  one  week  recently  three  women  teachers  in  New 
England  committed  suicide  because,  as  announced,  'the  un- 
ruly boys  drove  them  to  suicide.'  We  are  less  skeptical  than 
we  should  be  did  we  not  know  how  strenuous  is  the  life  of  a 
new  teacher.  .  .  . 

"There  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  there  is  the  same  bump- 


56  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

tiousness  among  boys  as  there  is  among  men  and  women. 
The  unrest  in  politics,  society,  business,  labor,  suffragists, 
and  church  is  present  with  boys  and  girls.  .  .  . 

"It  is  of  no  avail  to  say  that  we  should  treat  them  as  we 
were  treated.  That  sort  of  talk  has  wrecked  many  a  well- 
established  business.  ...  It  is  a  common  event  for  men 
in  business  or  hi  politics  to  commit  suicide  because  they  can- 
not deal  with  men  as  of  old.  Teachers  are  sure  to  pay  the 
'high  price'  of  the  times  in  which  we  live.  The  '  high  cost  of 
living'  is  not  chiefly  a  financial  affair." 

Nor  is  educational  theory  without  an  unfulfilled  re- 
sponsibility in  this  matter.  The  tone  of  teachers'  hand- 
books is  generally  peremptory  and  sarcastic  in  the  discus- 
sion of  disciplinary  problems.  One  would  assume  from 
a  cursory  reading  of  these  treatments  that  discipline  is 
a  very  simple  little  matter  that  almost  any  one  with 
common  sense  can  handle  without  difficulty.  As  a  re- 
sult, the  young  teacher  who  has  imbibed  such  question- 
able wisdom  is  morally  certain  to  conclude  that  his  or 
her  own  troubles  and  vexations  are  peculiar  to  him  or 
her  alone.  Of  course,  nothing  but  self-distrust  and 
extreme  depression  can  follow  from  such  a  conclusion, 
and  the  subjective  attitude  is  inevitable.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  implication  that  discipline  is  a  trivial  matter 
is  entirely  without  warrant.  Very  few  teachers  have 
succeeded  in  their  work  without  undergoing  many 
strenuous  and  sometimes  heart-rending  experiences  in 
dealing  with  recalcitrant  boys  and  girls.  And  the  young 
teacher  will  do  well  to  look  upon  these  difficulties  as 
part  and  parcel  of  the  day's  work,  —  problems  to  be 


THE    OBJECTIVE   ATTITUDE  57 

studied  and  solved  in  a  judicial  frame  of  mind,  as  part 
of  the  work  for  which  one  is  being  paid.  To  look  upon 
them  as  burdens  which  one  is  singled  out  by  an  unkind 
fate  to  bear  alone  and  in  silence,  is  to  court  disaster  at 
the  very  outset  of  one's  career. 

Suggestions  for  cultivating  the  Objective  Attitude.  — 
When  these  troubles  threaten  to  assume  a  personal 
reference,  the  moment  has  arrived  for  what  may  be 
called  "  prophylactic "  treatment,  and  the  secret  of 
success  here  is  strenuously  to  occupy  the  mind  with  other 
activities,  especially  when  one  is  tired  out  with  a  stren- 
uous day  of  teaching.  Above  all,  hasty  and  ill-con- 
sidered action  is  to  be  avoided.  Perhaps  something 
may  be  lost  by  delay,  but  the  chances  are  that  a 
hair-trigger  explosion  will  make  matters  infinitely 
worse.  When  a  difficulty  has  been  "  slept  over  "  the 
atmosphere  is  likely  to  clear  up  and  one  is  enabled 
to  see  happenings  in  their  proper  perspective.  There 
are  certainly  occasions,  —  as  will  be  suggested  later,  — 
which  will  brook  no  delay  even  if  one's  temper  is  worn 
to  a  fine  edge,  but  these  occasions  are  infrequent.  In 
general,  then,  an  excellent  method  of  cultivating  the 
objective  attitude  is  to  lock  the  disciplinary  worries  in 
the  schoolroom  when  the  day's  work  is  over. 

The  importance  of  getting  a  personal  grievance  "  out 
of  the  system  "  has  already  been  referred  to.  It  is 
well  to  imagine  one's  self  in  the  place  of  the  offend- 
ing person,  —  especially  if  the  offending  person  is  a 
child.  For  the  child  to  confuse  the  personality  of 


58  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  teacher  with  the  authority  of  the  teacher  is 
natural  enough;  for  him  to  express  his  dislike  of 
school  requirements  in  forms  of  rebellion  against  those 
in  authority  is  not  unnatural.  He  is  bound  to  make  his 
references  personal  rather  than  impersonal,  and  to  in- 
terpret his  situations  subjectively  rather  than  objectively. 
But  for  the  teacher  to  retaliate  in  kind,  —  for  him  to 
place  himself  upon  the  level  of  the  immature  and  in- 
experienced child,  —  is  stultifying  to  his  adulthood. 
Offenses  must  be  noticed;  children  must  be  corrected; 
the  pupil  must  even  be  led  to  see  that  his  conduct  has 
been  such  as  might  stimulate  others  to  anger  and  lead 
to  personal  retribution.  But  the  teacher  cannot  afford 
to  give  the  child  many  object  lessons  in  loss  of  temper 
as  a  means  of  impressing  this  fact. 

In  one  of  the  best  books  for  teachers  ever  written, 
Emerson  E.  White's  School  Management,  the  problem 
of  the  objective  attitude  is  treated  briefly  but  effec- 
tively in  the  following  words: 

"...  It  is  both  unwise  and  unjust  for  a  teacher  to  feel 
that  the  misconduct  of  his  pupils  is  aimed  at  him,  —  that 
they  are  actuated  by  conscious  personal  feelings  toward  him 
in  all  that  they  do  or  fail  to  do.  Such  a  feeling  is  sure  to 
estrange  the  teacher's  heart,  to  lead  to  personal  likes  and 
dislikes  toward  pupils,  and  to  end  in  discord.  A  reference 
to  his  own  experience  as  a  pupil  ought  to  dispel  such  a  delu- 
sion from  a  teacher's  mind.  The  conduct  of  a  pupil  may  be 
aimed  at  the  teacher,  may  have  a  personal  feeling  back  of  it ; 
but  this  is  exceptional,  —  at  least  it  should  be  so  con- 
sidered. .  .  .  The  true  policy  for  the  teacher  is  to  keep  him- 


THE   OBJECTIVE   ATTITUDE  59 

self  out  of  his  pupils'  conduct,  —  to  consider  misconduct  as 
an  offense  against  the  school,  and  not  against  himself. 

"The  writer  once  gave  this  advice  to  some  young  teachers 
in  a  county  institute,  .  .  .  and  in  the  evening  he  was  sur- 
prised and  the  audience  convulsed,  by  a  very  pat  illustration 
given  as  an  introduction  to  an  elocutionary  entertainment. 
The  elocutionist  said  that,  at  the  close  of  the  afternoon 
session,  he  put  on  his  overcoat  and  fur  muffler  (the  first 
seen  in  that  section)  and,  with  the  words,  'Keep  yourself 
out  of  your  pupils'  conduct,'  ringing  in  his  ears,  started  for 
the  hotel.  As  he  was  turning  a  corner,  a  little  imp  across 
the  street  yelled  out,  '  My !  Ain't  that  feller  got  long  ears ! ' 
Supposing  that  the  remark  was  suggested  by  his  fur  muffler, 
and  aimed  at  himself,  he  started  across  the  street  to  punish 
the  fellow  for  his  impudence,  but,  on  glancing  up  the  street, 
he  saw  a  man  leading  a  mule  with  the  longest  ears  he  had 
ever  seen.  He  came  quickly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  boy 
meant  the  mule !  'It  is  usually  wise,'  he  added,  'to  take  it 
for  granted  that  the  mischief  of  the  school  is  aimed  at  the 
mule.' "  * 

Getting  the  poison  of  injured  feelings  out  of  the 
system  may  sometimes  be  effected  through  talking  over 
one's  troubles  with  an  older  and  more  experienced  teacher. 
But  one  needs  here  to  beware  of  the  too  kind  friend  who 
will  sympathize  so  whole-heartedly  as  to  encourage  the 
nurture  of  the  grievance.  The  principal  or  the  super- 
intendent is  the  logical  father  confessor  in  cases  of  this 
sort,  and  the  young  teacher  who  can  feel  perfectly  free 
to  consult  with  the  principal  or  the  superintendent  — 
and  most  of  these  men  and  women  would  receive  these 
1  E.  E.  White,  School  Management,  New  York,  1894,  p.  33. 


60  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

confidences  in  the  right  spirit  —  will  usually  gain  a  type 
of  advice  adapted  to  the  particular  situation.  But  the 
important  point  in  the  present  connection  is  the  ad- 
vantage of  expressing  one's  feelings  in  a  way  that  will 
not  bring  disaster. 

In  general,  absorption  in  objective  problems  will  tend 
to  work  the  desired  end.  These  problems  may  be  re- 
mote from  the  sources  of  one's  present  difficulties;  or 
they  may  be  concerned  with  objective  methods  of  solv- 
ing these  difficulties,  types  of  which  will  form  the  themes 
of  the  following  chapters. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  "objective  attitude"  in  school 
management  ?    Contrast  it  by  example  with  the  "  subjective 
attitude." 

2.  What  conditions  or  occurrences  are  likely  to  make  the 
teacher  "self-conscious"?    What  steps  would  you  take  to 
guard  yourself  against  danger  under  these  conditions? 

3.  In  cases  of  excessive  "worry"  or  the  "blues"  try  the 
experiment  of  throwing  yourself  into  some  activity  foreign  to 
that  causing  the  disturbance.     Note   the  results.     Where 
does  the  greatest  difficulty  lie  in  making  this  experiment? 
Can  you  devise  means  for  reducing  the  difficulty  at  this 
point  ? 

4.  One  person  of  our  acquaintance  suggests  the  following 
method  of  getting  personal  grievances  "  out  of  his  system." 
When  irritated  or  exasperated  by  the  conduct  of  another,  he 
sits  down  and  writes  the  offender  a  stinging  letter.     This  he 
places  in  his  desk  and  leaves  it  there  until  the  next  morning. 
Invariably  on  re-reading  the  letter  in  the  morning,  it  sounds  so 


THE    OBJECTIVE   ATTITUDE  6l 

foolish  that  he  throws  it  into  the  waste-basket.     But  the  ex- 
pression has  relieved  the  tension. 

5.  A  successful  superintendent  writes  :  "If  we  succeed  in 
our  schools  in  maintaining  proper  discipline,  it  is  largely 
because  we  try  to  see  things  through  the  eyes  of  our  pupils 
as  well  as  through  our  own.  Many  troubles  arise  in  school 
because  of  the  stubbornness  of  teachers  and  because  of 
their  failure  to  see  the  matter  from  the  pupil's  point  of 
view."  Another  person  writes  that  the  best  way  to  attain 
the  objective  attitude  is  to  imagine  one's  self  on  the  out- 
side looking  on  at  one's  work.  This  art  of  personal  "de- 
tachment" is  very  difficult,  but  it  is  worth  practicing. 


CHAPTER  V 

TRANSFORMING   THE   UNRULY   SCHOOL:    (E)  RAISING 
THE  QUALITATIVE  STANDARDS  OF  SCHOOL  WORK 

ASSUMING  an  effective  professional,  impersonal,  and 
objective  attitude  upon  the  part  of  the  teacher,  the  next 
problem  is  to  change  the  point  of  view  of  the  pupils  in 
this  unruly  school.  Hitherto,  we  may  assume,  the 
pupils  have  localized  in  the  personality  of  the  teacher 
the  force  that  is  compelling  them  to  do  certain  tasks 
and  restrain  certain  impulses.  They  have  not  felt  the 
compulsion  of  the  tasks  themselves,  nor  have  they  recog- 
nized the  necessity  of  the  restraints. 

A  Rational  Attitude  of  the  Pupils  toward  School  Dis- 
cipline the  Goal.  —  Ultimately,  if  the  work  of  the  school 
is  to  be  prosecuted  with  a  maximum  of  efficiency,  the 
pupils  must  get  beyond  this  primitive  point  of  view. 
They  must  feel  the  compelling  force  of  the  work  to 
which  they  set  their  hands,  and  they  must  see  clearly 
that,  in  the  interests  of  the  social  group,  there  are  certain 
desires  that  cannot  be  gratified  and  that  must  be  re- 
pressed. The  fundamental  reasons  for  these  require- 
ments and  restrictions  should  gradually  be  brought  to 
their  attention;  but  too  much  cannot  be  expected 
in  this  direction  at  the  outset.  The  problem  is  first 

62 


RAISING   QUALITATIVE   STANDARDS  63 

to  habituate  them  to  the  orderly,  systematic,  regular 
routine  of  tasks  and  duties,  insuring  in  them  a  dis- 
tinct recognition  that  it  is  the  task  and  not  the  teacher 
that  "  drives  "  them  to  persistent  effort ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  cultivate  the  responsibility  of  the  pupil 
group  as  a  whole  for  the  order  and  industry  of  individual 
members,  thus  acquainting  the  individual  with  the 
social  pressure  that,  together  with  his  daily  work,  will 
constitute  the  chief  coercive  force  in  his  later  life. 

In  other  words,  the  pupil  must  come  to  feel  the  necessity 
for  sacrificing  momentary  whims  and  desires  for  the  sake 
of  his  own  individual  progress;  he  must  feel  the  necessity 
for  sacrificing  individual  whims  and  desires  for  the  sake  of 
the  social  good;  and,  as  far  as  possible,  he  should  in  his 
school  life  locate  these  compelling  forces  in  the  work  that 
he  is  doing,  or  in  the  social  group  in  which  he  has  a  place, 
for  this  is  the  normal  state  of  affairs  that  will  operate  in 
his  adult  life.  He  should  not  locate  the  forces  either  in 
the  school  that  he  attends  or  in  the  personality  of  the  teacher 
who  instructs  him,  for  then  not  only  is  the  force  likely  to 
cease  to  operate  once  the  influence  of  school  and  teacher 
has  been  removed,  but  the  unfortunate  attitude  of  personal 
antagonism  toward  those  in  authority  is  likely  to  persist 
indefinitely. 

Making  the  Work  the  Master.  —  It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  pupils  who  are  absorbed  in  their  tasks  will 
cause  a  minimum  of  trouble  in  discipline.  This  is  one 
of  the  "  discoveries "  that  critics  of  school  work  are 
likely  to  voice  emphatically  —  under  the  assumption, 


64  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

presumably,  that  teachers  and  principals  are  ignorant 
of  the  simple  truism.  It  is  quite  another  matter, 
however,  to  insure  this  absorption  upon  the  part  of 
every  pupil  in  every  task  that  the  school  demands, 
—  and  here  the  critics  are  usually  discreetly  silent. 
Some,  however,  are  keen  enough  to  recognize  that  this, 
after  all,  is  the  crucial  problem,  and  propose  to  cut  the 
Gordian  knot  by  dispensing  with  all  subjects  in  which 
pupils  cannot  be  readily  interested.  This  apparently 
simple  solution,  however,  quickly  collides  with  the  public 
demand  that  certain  subjects  be  taught  and  that  teachers 
acquire  the  art  of  teaching  them  to  the  pupils  who  need 
them,  whether  these  pupils  "  take  naturally  "  to  such 
subjects  or  not.  Sometimes  it  seems  that  the  public 
would  relax  a  little  in  these  demands,  but  usually  the 
apprehension  (or  the  hope,  as  the  case  may  be)  is  only 
short  lived.  And  this  almost  instinctive  reaction  of  the 
public  mind  may  be  fairly  trusted  to  reveal  real  needs. 
The  school  must  meet  social  demands,  and  this  necessi- 
tates common  elements  in  education.  "  All  the  children 
of  all  the  people  "  must  have  a  certain  common  capital 
of  skill  and  information,  and  this  common  capital  con- 
stitutes the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school.  It  is 
the  teacher's  task,  not  only  to  give  to  each  pupil  that 
which  he  desires  and  can  assimilate  without  effort,  but 
also  that  which  is  recognized  as  essential  to  him  as  a 
social  unit. 

The  point  of  view  from  which  many  school  critics  condemn 
educational  practices  is  well  represented  by  William  Hawley 


RAISING  QUALITATIVE    STANDARDS  6$ 

Smith's  All  the  Children  of  All  the  People.1  The  following 
quotation  will  reveal  the  kind  of  thinking  that  this  type  of 
criticism  involves : 

"Shall,  then,  our  public  schools  have  no  courses  of  study? 
I  am  asked.  And  I  hasten  to  reply :  No  fixed  and  uniform 
courses,  the  same  for  all  the  children  of  all  the  people ;  no 
course  which  is  '  that  or  nothing '  for  every  child  —  nothing 
like  that.  Surely  not.  We  shall  simply  carry  out,  in  all 
departments  of  these  schools,  the  principle  of  'electives,' 
now  so  thoroughly  established  in  the  leading  colleges  and  uni- 
versities of  this  country. 

"Then,  instead  of  sticking  to  the  idea  that  the  children 
are  made  for  the  schools,  we  shall  stand  on  the  just  and 
rational  basis  that  the  schools  are  made  for  the  children. 

"Then,  in  determining  what  studies  each  several  child 
shall  pursue,  in  making  up  a  course  of  study  for  each,  we  shall 
be  guided  by  the  natural  aptitude  and  abilities  of  that  child, 
by  the  way  he  is,  and  not  by  the  demands  of  any  institution, 
or  of  men  —  parties  who  have  never  seen  the  child  in  question, 
and  so  know  nothing  of  what  he  really  needs  to  make  the  most 
of  himself." 

It  is  clear  that  Mr.  Smith  has  quite  overlooked  the 
fundamental  significance  to  a  democracy  of  certain  basic 
facts,  ideas,  and  ideals  that  are  common  to  "  all  the 
people,"  —  a  fatal  defect  in  many  of  the  proposals  made 
by  schoolmen  as  well  as  laymen  for  the  reorganization 
of  the  lower  schools.  To  ask  whether  the  pupils  are  for 
the  schools  or  the  schools  for  the  pupils  is  to  blind  one's 
readers  to  the  basic  fact,  —  namely,  that  the  schools  are 
"  for  "  society  and  that  the  social  demands  are  funda- 
mental. 

1  New  York,  1912.     (Especially  ch.  xxiii.) 

F 


66  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

We  have  small  faith,  however,  that  the  problem  of  dis- 
cipline would  be  materially  simplified  even  if  the  heroic 
measure  of  making  an  individual  program  for  each  pupil 
were  universally  adopted.  After  all,  what  the  critic  of 
school  practice  commonly  forgets  is  the  influence  of  ha- 
bituation.  As  we  shall  point  out  in  a  later  chapter,1  the 
fascination  that  one  feels  for  one's  work  is  very  largely 
dependent  upon  familiarity  with  that  work,  and  skill  in 
its  details.  Any  type  of  work  is  likely  to  be  distasteful  at 
certain  points  in  the  initial  stages  of  its  mastery.  The  prob- 
lem of  "making  the  work  the  master,"  then,  would  be 
likely  to  confront  the  teacher  under  any  circumstances. 

Raising  Qualitative  Standards  of  Work  One  Means 
of  making  the  Work  the  Master.  In  the  unruly  school, 
the  teacher  is  on  the  defensive,  and  his  first  problem  is 
to  transfer  his  pupils  to  this  position.  Here  the  clearly 
indicated  policy  is  one  of  increasing  the  qualitative 
standards  of  school  work;  as  one  successful  teacher 
replied  when  asked  for  advice  on  this  matter,  — 
"  '  Stiffen  '  the  standards  and  '  check  up  '  the  individual 
pupil  more  relentlessly."  The  strategic  value  of  this 
policy  from  the  point  of  view  of  discipline  lies  not  only 
in  the  fact  that  it  takes  the  pupils'  attention  away  from 
mischief  and  concentrates  it  upon  the  school  tasks,  but 
also  in  the  fact  that  it  shifts  the  "  defensive."  The 
pupil  is  no  longer  the  aggressor  worrying  his  traditional 
enemy,  but  the  defender  finding  all  that  he  can  do  to 
keep  his  own  position  secure. 

1  Ch.  xiv. 


RAISING  QUALITATIVE    STANDARDS  67 

But  the  emphasis  should  certainly  be  laid  upon  the 
adjective,  "  qualitative."  Merely  increasing  the  quantity 
of  work  to  be  done  will  be  of  slight  service  in  solving  the 
problem.  Indeed,  too  many  teachers  vent,  through 
extra  long  assignments,  the  spleen  that  has  been  irri- 
tated by  inattention  and  disorder.  This  practice  is  to 
be  thoroughly  discountenanced;  first,  because  it  is 
commonly  ineffective,  and,  secondly,  because  it  is  inter- 
preted by  the  pupils  as  a  punishment,  and  thus  breaks  a 
cardinal  rule  of  school  management  by  making  a  punish- 
ment out  of  a  school  task. 

The  raising  of  qualitative  standards,  however,  Is  quite 
another  matter.  The  unruly  school  is  almost  always 
deficient  in  the  quality  of  work  attempted  and  com- 
pleted. The  ground  prescribed  by  the  course  of  study 
may  be  covered  in  a  way,  but  the  very  fact  that  the 
school  is  unruly  will  mean  that  it  is  covered  in  a  careless, 
slipshod  way.  A  school  of  this  type  distinctly  needs 
more  insistence  upon  accuracy  where  accuracy  is  a  virtue ; 
heavier  stress  upon  neatness  where  neatness  is  a  virtue ; 
greater  emphasis  upon  rapidity,  deftness,  and  readiness 
of  response  where  these  qualities  are  virtues.  It  is 
vastly  more  difficult  to  devise  means  to  these  ends  than 
to  assign  ten  more  pages  or  twenty  more  problems. 
But  effort  in  this  qualitative  direction  will  pay  large 
dividends  in  an  improved  school  spirit  —  provided,  of 
course,  that  the  increased  demands  are  made  so  skill- 
fully as  not  to  be  interpreted  by  the  pupils  as  penalties 
imposed  for  disorder. 


68  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

The  Use  of  Objective  Scales  and  Tests  in  raising 
Qualitative  Standards. --There  is  here  an  excellent 
opportunity  for  employing  the  objective  standards 
that  are  being  so  rapidly  developed  for  the  measure- 
ment of  educational  progress,  —  the  Courtis  arithmetic 
tests,  the  Ayres  and  the  Thorndike  handwriting  scales, 
the  Hillegas  composition  scale,  the  Harvard-Newton 
scale,  and  the  like.  There  is  some  question  as  to  the 
accuracy  with  which  these  various  scales  actually  meas- 
ure the  progress  of  pupils  in  the  various  school  arts,  but 
irrespective  of  this  question,  they  may  be  used  as  a  means 
of  developing  an  effective  attitude  toward  the  work. 

The  Courtis  tests  are  made  up  of  standardized  exercises 
in  the  fundamental  operations  (the  "facts"  or  "tables") 
and  in  the  simpler  reasoning  processes  of  arithmetic.  By 
making  use  of  the  charts  which  are  furnished  with  these 
exercises,  the  teacher  may  show  each  pupil  how  far  he  is  from 
the  "norm"  or  "average"  pupil  of  his  age,  and  just  where  his 
weakness  lies,  —  whether  in  the  rapidity  with  which  he  can 
make  the  number  combinations  or  in  the  accuracy  of  these 
combinations.  The  average  for  the  class  can  also  be  repre- 
sented graphically,  and  the  class  can  be  shown  precisely  where 
it  stands  with  reference  to  other  classes. 

The  two  handwriting  scales  can  be  used  most  effectively 
for  measuring  the  advance  of  each  pupil  from  month  to  month 
in  legibility  and  neatness  of  his  handwriting,  and  in  compar- 
ing the  progress  of  groups  of  pupils.  The  composition  scales 
enable  the  pupils  to  compare  their  own  work  with  typical 
exercises  that  have  been  carefully  graded  and  scientifically 
evaluated ;  and  although  their  utility  from  our  present  point 
of  view,  —  namely,  insuring  an  objective  attitude  of  the  pupils 


RAISING   QUALITATIVE    STANDARDS  69 

toward  their  work,  —  is  not  so  clearly  marked  as  in  the  case 
of  the  arithmetic  and  handwriting  scales,  they  can  be  profit- 
ably used  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  and  in  the  high 
school.1 

As  means  of  directing  the  attention  of  the  pupils 
toward  their  work  and  away  from  the  mischief-impelling 
stimuli  of  the  schoolroom,  these  scales  have  a  marked 
advantage  in  that  they  represent  objective  rather  than 
subjective  standards.  It  is  one  thing  to  say  to  a  pupil, 
"  Your  writing  does  not  please  me ;  you  must  improve 
it."  Here  the  teacher  is  being  pleased  or  displeased, 
and  the  subjective  attitude  is  being  encouraged  on  both 
sides.  It  is  quite  another  thing  to  say :  "  Here  is  a  hand- 
writing chart  used  throughout  the  country  to  find  out 
just  how  well  or  how  poorly  people  write.  Let  us  see 
where  your  paper  stands  on  this  scale."  The  teacher 
is  now  no  longer  the  judge  and  the  pupil  the  culprit, 
One  is  not  combating  the  other,  but  both  are  looking 
toward  an  objective  goal,  and  the  way  is  open  for  the 
teacher  to  come  into  his  true  function,  —  not  that  of 
a  taskmaster,  but  rather  that  of  a  guide  and  counselor 
to  the  pupil,  pointing  the  way  and  showing  the  means  to- 
ward an  achievement  the  worth  and  significance  of  which 
the  pupil  can  grasp. 

1  The  Courtis  tests  may  be  obtained  at  small  cost  from  the  World 
Book  Co.,  Yonkers,  New  York.  The  Ayres  handwriting  scale  in  a 
very  convenient  form  is  supplied  by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New 
York  City,  at  five  cents  a  copy.  The  Thorndike  handwriting  scale 
and  the  Hillegas  composition  scale  are  published  by  Teachers  Col- 
lege, Columbia  University,  New  York  City.  The  Harvard-Newton 
scale  is  published  by  the  Aldine  Company,  New  York  City. 


70  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

It  should  not  be  inferred  from  this  discussion  that  the 
approval  or  the  disapproval  of  the  teacher  is  an  unworthy 
reward  or  penalty  for  good  or  poor  work.  In  a  well-ordered 
and  well-disciplined  school,  where  an  effective  spirit  has  been 
established,  the  teacher's  approval  and  disapproval  may  be 
the  most  effective  of  all  rewards  or  penalties.  But  we  are 
now  dealing  with  the  unruly  school  where,  by  hypothesis, 
the  prevailing  attitude  of  the  pupil  is  hostile  to  the  teacher 
and  careless  of  his  or  her  approval.  Indeed,  in  such  a  school, 
the  teacher's  open  disapproval  is  often  the  prize  that  most 
pupils  seek  —  so  twisted  have  their  ideals  and  standards 
become  with  the  decay  of  the  school's  morale. 

Encouraging  Pupils  to  compete  with  their  Own  "  Best 
Records."  —  A  caution  that  must  go  with  this  suggestion 
of  "  stiffening "  qualitative  standards  suggests  itself 
at  once.  It  is  the  troublesome  problem  of  "  individual 
differences."  If  one  raises  standards,  one  tends  to  dis- 
courage those  who  are  at  the  weaker  end  of  the  scale  of 
ability,  thus  increasing  rather  than  diminishing  the  likeli- 
hood of  disciplinary  difficulties.  Here  the  way  out  in- 
volves another  shift  in  the  pupil's  point  of  view  —  and 
also,  perhaps,  in  the  teacher's  point  of  view.  While  it 
would  be  impossible  and  probably  unwise  entirely  to 
eliminate  emulation  and  rivalry  as  school  incentives, 
these  forces  must  be  supplemented  by  another  principle 
which  has  been  rightly  emphasized  in  recent  discussions  of 
school  management :  the  principle,  namely,  of  encourag- 
ing each  pupil  to  compete,  not  only  with  the  records  that 
other  pupils  make,  but  alsowith/fw  ownbest  previous  record. 

Here,  again,  the  objective  scales  may  be  employed  to 


RAISING   QUALITATIVE   STANDARDS  71 

good  purpose.  The  significance  of  the  individual 
curves  that  can  be  plotted  for  the  Courtis  tests,  for  ex- 
ample, maybe  made  intelligible  to  upper-grade  pupils,  and 
offer  effective  incentives  for  putting  forth  effort  toward 
improvement.  Records  of  individual  growth  may  also 
be  charted  in  other  subjects. 

In  one  school,  for  example,  the  per  cent  of  correctly  spelled 
words  was  computed  at  regular  intervals  from  a  sample 
selected  at  random  from  the  composition  work  of  each  pupil 
for  that  period.  Practically  every  pupil  in  the  room  strove 
valiantly  to  increase  this  per  cent  each  month.  The  hand- 
writing scales,  as  has  been  suggested,  lend  themselves  admi- 
rably to  the  problem  of  recording  individual  progress.  Prac- 
tically all  of  the  "habit"  or  "drill"  subjects  (arithmetic, 
spelling,  basic  reading,  penmanship,  and  oral  and  written 
composition)  may  be  employed  in  this  way  to  stimulate 
self-rivalry. 

Encouraging  Group  Rivalry.  —  The  evils  of  individual 
rivalry  that  are  likely  to  handicap  efforts  at  raising 
qualitative  standards  may  be  counteracted,  not  only 
'by  stimulating  individuals  to  compete  with  their  own 
best  records,  but  also  by  encouraging  rivalry  between 
groups  rather  than  between  individuals.  The  advantage 
of  group  rivalry  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  stimulates  all  of 
the  pupils  to  do  their  best  work  for  the  good  name  of  the 
group.  Where  competition  is  strictly  individual,  the 
weaker  members  of  the  group  will  become  discouraged 
and  quickly  drop  out  of  the  race,  leaving  the  honors  to 
be  struggled  for  by  two  or  three  of  the  brighter  pupils. 


72  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

But  where  groups  are  pitted  against  one  another,  the 
score  of  each  individual  is  a  factor  in  the  average  score 
of  the  group,  and  the  pressure  of  the  group  upon  each 
individual  will,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  be  suffi- 
ciently heavy  to  insure  a  maximum  of  effort. 

Thus  rooms  of  the  same  grade  in  a  city  system  may  very 
profitably  and  with  little  danger  of  injustice  engage  in  spirited 
competitions  of  various  sorts,  —  spelling  contests,  arithmetic 
contests,'  geography  contests,  handwriting  contests,  history 
contests,  and  the  like.  And  it  is  quite  possible,  by  dividing 
a  single  class  into  two  or  more  groups,  to  obtain  the  same 
advantage  of  collective  competition. 

Summary.  —  In  the  unruly  school,  it  was  said,  the 
teacher  is  on  the  defensive,  and  the  activity  of  the  pupils 
is  devoted  in  large  part  to  "  making  trouble."  To 
transform  this  attitude  effectively,  the  pupils  must  come 
to  feel  the  compelling  force  of  the  work  and  the  compel- 
ling force  of  the  social  group.  In  the  unruly  school, 
the  latter  force  makes  for  disorder ;  hence  it,  too,  must 
be  transformed.  The  first  step,  then,  is  to  "  make  the 
work  the  master,"  and  to  insure  the  occupation  of  the 
pupils'  minds  by  the  tasks  for  which  the  school  exists. 
One  means  toward  this  end  is  to  raise  the  qualitative 
standards  of  work  through  the  various  devices  just  dis- 
cussed :  (i)  the  use  of  objective  scales,  (2)  encourag- 
ing pupils  to  compete  with  their  own  best  records,  and 
(3)  encouraging  collective  or  group  competition.  It  is 
clear,  also,  that  the  latter  measure  will  do  something 
to  stimulate  the  responsibility  of  the  group  for  the  con- 


RAISING   QUALITATIVE    STANDARDS  73 

duct  of  the  individual.  This  problem,  however,  we 
shall  discuss  in  detail  a  little  later.  We  have  still  to  men- 
tion another  means  of  "making  the  work  the  master," — 
namely,  the  employment  of  the  "  individual  assignment." 
This  will  be  the  theme  of  the  following  chapter. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

i.  In  what  ways,  if  any,  is  the  following  precept  imprac- 
ticable in  school  discipline:  "The  pupil  should  never  be 
required  to  do  anything  for  which  he  does  not  understand 
the  reason"?  Name  some  requirements  of  school  work  or 
of  school  management  that  could  not  be  met  under  a  thor- 
oughly consistent  application  of  this  precept. 

2.  Find  in  your  own  experience  instances  of  holding  your- 
self to  disagreeable  tasks  because  of  the  ultimate  end  to  be 
gained.     Compare  with  experiences  in  which  you  have  been 
held  by  the  will  of  another. 

3.  Name  some  of  the  things  that  you  now  do  or  leave 
undone  because  of  the  "pressure"  of  the  social  group.     What 
is  the  difference  in  your  own  experience  between  tasks  or 
sacrifices  that  are  necessitated  by  the  "collective  will"  of 
your  fellows  and  the  tasks  and  sacrifices  that  are  necessitated 
by  the  individual  will  or  "fiat"  of  some  one  in  authority  ? 

4.  Discuss  the  practicability  of  limiting  the  school  work 
of  each  pupil  to  the  studies  and  activities  for  which  he  has  an 
aptitude  or  a  liking. 

5.  Can  you  find  in  your  own  experience  an  instance  of 
work  which,  if  prosecuted  systematically  and  successfully, 
is  always  pleasant  and  agreeable  ? 

6.  What  is  the  difference  between  raising  the  standards 
of  work  "qualitatively"  and  raising  these  standards  "quan- 
titatively"?    Give  illustrations. 


74  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

7.  What  are  the  advantages  of  using  the  standard  tests 
or  "scales"  as  means  of  raising  qualitative  standards? 

8.  Distinguish  between  "rivalry  between  individuals," 
"self -rivalry,"  and  "group-rivalry."     State  the  advantages 
and  limitations  of  each  type  of  rivalry. 

9.  Devise  means  for  applying  the  principle  of  self-rivalry 
in  the  study  of  the  different  school  subjects. 

10.  Under  what  conditions  may  group-rivalry  be  most 
effectively  stimulated?  Illustrate  the  application  of  this 
principle  to  the  different  school  subjects. 


CHAPTER  VI 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:    (C)  THE  EM- 
PLOYMENT OF  "INDIVIDUAL"  ASSIGNMENTS 

A  SECOND  suggestion  for  transforming  a  bad  school 
spirit  is  to  make  a  wide  use  of  what  is  called  the  "  problem 
interest."  An  individual  assignment  for  investigation 
and  report  involves  a  type  of  individual  responsibility 
which  the  pupil  usually  feels  more  keenly  than  he  feels 
his  responsibility  for  class  assignments.  The  latter, 
of  course,  must  be  given ;  lessons  and  problems  that  are 
common  to  all  of  the  members  of  the  class  are  essential 
if  the  aim  of  education  is  to  be  realized ;  but  the  former 
is  especially  important  in  the  unruly  school  as  a  means 
of  gaining  the  cooperation  of  recalcitrant  pupils.  It  is 
again  to  be  noted  that  this  is  the  kind  of  "  discipline  " 
that  the  pupil  will  meet  in  his  later  life.  He  will  be  held 
responsible  for  the  accomplishment  of  certain  specific 
and  individual  tasks,  and  under  the  lash  of  this  direct 
responsibility  it  not  infrequently  happens  that  men 
who  were  refractory  schoolboys  settle  down  to  industri- 
ous and  well-ordered  lives.  The  individual  problem, 
carefully  administered,  represents  a  type  of  experience 
that  will  probably  do  more  to  teach  the  boy  or  the  girl 
the  basic  moral  lessons  of  work  and  industry  than  any 
other  means  that  the  school  may  devise. 

75 


76  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

The  Pupil  should  feel  a  Responsibility  to  the  Class 
as  well  as  to  the  Teacher  in  working  Individual  Problems. 
-  It  has  just  been  said  that  the  individual  problem  must 
be  carefully  administered  if  its  rich  disciplinary  values 
are  to  be  realized ;  and  this  involves,  first  of  all,  that  it 
be  clearly  related  in  the  pupil's  mind,  either  to  some  need 
that  he  feels  in  his  own  life  for  the  material  which  the 
problem  will  produce,  or  to  some  need  that  the  group 
feels.  The  latter  is  the  more  important  factor,  and 
individual  assignments  should,  if  possible,  be  made  with 
a  distinct  reference  to  the  group  needs. 

For  example,  a  teacher  of  our  acquaintance  asked  a  pair 
of  troublesome  boys  to  measure  off  a  rod,  a  hundred  yards, 
a  half  mile,  and  a  mile  on  a  route  familiar  to  all  of  the  pupils 
so  that  the  class  might  have  an  objective  standard  for  refer- 
ence when  distances  were  under  discussion.  The  work,  if 
we  remember  aright,  was  done  outside  of  school  hours,  and 
quite  willingly.  The  results  were  reported  by  the  two  boys 
with  obvious  pride  in  the  achievement.  They  had  seen 
surveyors  measuring  with  the  chain  and  were  not  at  all  averse 
to  carrying  the  tape-line  through  the  streets.  In  this  same 
school,  individual  pupils  were  assigned  to  find  out  the  prices 
of  different  articles  of  commerce,  and  report  to  the  class  the 
data  which  were  then  used  in  the  construction  of  problems. 

The  "lantern  lesson,"  as  employed  in  a  certain  system  of 
schools,  is  also  illustrative  of  this  social  use  of  the  individual 
assignment.  Each  school  in  the  system  possesses  a  stereopti- 
con,  and  a  large  collection  of  slides,  classified  into  topic 
groups,  for  instruction  in  geography  and  history,  is  provided 
at  the  central  office.  If  a  sixth-grade  teacher  wishes  to  give 
a  lesson,  let  us  say,  on  London,  she  sends  to  the  office  for  the 


INDIVIDUAL  ASSIGNMENTS  77 

London  slides.  Different  pupils  are  then  assigned  slides  for 
discussion.  If  one  is  given  Westminster  Abbey,  for  example, 
he  will  be  responsible  to  the  class  for  giving  a  clear,  succinct 
account  of  the  Abbey,  and  to  do  this  he  must  look  up  the  data 
in  all  of  the  sources  that  are  available,  prepare  his  topic  for  a 
three-minute  presentation,  and  be  ready  at  the  time  of  the 
lesson  to  take  entire  charge  of  the  exercise  while  this  particular 
picture  is  on  the  screen.  Pictures  collected  from  magazines 
and  other  sources,  and  mounted  on  cardboard,  could  be  simi- 
larly utilized. 

The  late  Professor  F.  L.  Charles  collected,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  elementary-school  pupils,  a  mass  of  valuable  in- 
formation regarding  the  feeding  habits  of  birds.  Individual 
pupils  were  assigned  to  watch  the  birds  during  half-hour 
periods  from  early  morning  until  dark,  noting  the  kind  and 
amount  of  food  brought  to  the  nest  for  the  mother  and  the 
young.  The  assignment  involved  a  type  of  observation 
that  would  naturally  interest  the  normal  child,  but,  in  addi- 
tion to  this,  it  emphasized  the  significance  of  systematic 
work  and  close  attention  in  a  way  that  the  pupils  could 
thoroughly  appreciate,  for  the  fact  that  inaccuracy  of  ob- 
servation or  failure  to  watch  the  nests  continually  would 
invalidate  the  results  was  quite  within  their  comprehension 
and  an  effective  group  pride  in  the  efficiency  of  the  investiga- 
tion was  easily  developed. 

Individual  Problems  should  have  a  Value  clearly 
understood  by  the  Pupils.  —  To  assign  individual 
problems  simply  as  tasks  imposed  in  the  way  of  punish- 
ment would  be  fatal  to  the  purpose  that  we  have  in  mind. 
Penalties  and  punishments  there  must  be,  we  may  say 
now  in  anticipation  of  later  discussion,  but  school  tasks, 
let  us  repeat,  should  never  be  employed  as  penalties. 


78  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

Our  problem  here  is  to  transform  the  attitude  of  the  pupil 
by  indirect  means,  —  by  noncoercive  means  (except  as 
the  work  itself  or  the  pressure  of  the  social  group  is 
a  coercive  force).  Individual  problems,  then,  should 
never  be  employed  simply  for  the  sake  of  "  keeping  the 
pupils  occupied  "  ;  indeed,  if  the  pupil  is  not  to  become 
disgusted  with  the  whole  policy  of  individual  assign- 
ments, great  care  must  be  exercised  to  avoid  the  collec- 
tion of  data  that  cannot  be  digested  and  employed  to 
good  purpose.  How  to  make  these  individual  reports 
thoroughly  valuable  is  likely  to  tax  the  resourcefulness 
of  the  teacher,  but  time  and  energy  spent  in  planning 
for  this  work  will  usually  bring  most  gratifying  results. 
The  following  suggestions  may  be  helpful  to  the  young 
teacher  in  organizing  this  phase  of  his  work : 

Types  of  Individual  Assignments.  —  In  the  teaching 
of  geography,  Sutherland 1  advises  the  keeping  of  a 
weather  record,  with  two  observations  daily  (one  at 
nine  in  the  morning  and  one  at  four  in  the  afternoon) 
and  the  correlation  of  the  recorded  data  with  the  fol- 
lowing facts :  time  of  plowing  in  the  spring ;  time 
of  planting  and  seeding  various  crops;  time  of  ap- 
pearance of  crops  above  the  ground ;  time  of  flowering 
of  strawberries,  raspberries,  plums,  and  other  fruits; 
time  of  commencement  of  haying,  and  of  harvesting 
various  cereals ;  time  of  ripening  of  various  fruits ; 
time  of  migration  of  wild  fowl  and  birds ;  time  of  leafing 
and  fall  of  leaves  in  deciduous  trees ;  the  date  of  breaking 

1  W.  J.  Sutherland,  The  Teaching  of  Geography,  Chicago,  1909,  p.  231. 


INDIVIDUAL   ASSIGNMENTS  79 

up  of  ice  in  large  rivers  and  bays ;  the  date  of  greatest 
rise  and  of  lowest  water  in  streams.  Information  of 
this  type  could  be  profitably  collected  by  individual 
pupils,  and  made  of  large  value  in  the  study  of  geography. 

If  a  goodly  number  of  textbooks  in  history  are  available, 
individual  pupils  may  be  asked  to  look  up  and  report 
to  the  class  the  variations  in  the  treatment  of  the  same 
topic  in  the  different  texts.  In  some  cases,  rather  wide 
differences  will  be  found,  and  even  discrepancies  and  in- 
consistencies will  appear  in  statements  that  would  ordi- 
narily be  taken  as  facts.  Where  such  discrepancies 
are  found,  the  individual  assignment  may  again  be 
employed  to  trace  the  difficulty  to  its  source  and  to 
determine,  if  possible,  what  the  facts  really  are.  The 
same  treatment  may  be  applied  to  texts  in  geography, 
physiology,  and  in  other  school  subjects.1 

In  connection  with  reading,  many  excellent  suggestions 
for  individual  assignments  may  be  gained  from  the  special 
textbooks  on  the  teaching  of  reading.  The  method 
advocated  by  Professor  S.  H.  Clark,2  for  example,  in- 
volves a  careful  study  of  the  selection  in  hand  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  just  how  much  stress  should  be 
given  to  each  word  in  oral  reading  in  order  to  express  the 
precise  meaning  of  the  author.  By  assigning  different 
parts  to  different  pupils,  this  procedure  will  do  much 
to  stimulate  individual  responsibility.  The  class  exercise 

1  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Professor  L.  D.  Coffman  for  this  and 
other  suggestions  in  connection  with  individual  assignments. 

2  S.  H.  Clark,  How  to  Teach  Reading  in  Public  Schools,  Chicago, 
1903,  ch.  v. 


80  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

may  then  be  devoted  in  part  to  a  critical  discussion  of 
each  pupil's  rendering  of  the  part  assigned  especially 
to  him. 

To  the  suggestions  mentioned  above  for  making 
individual  assignments  in  arithmetic,  the  framing  of 
"  original  "  problems  by  the  pupils  may  be  profitably 
added. 

"Children  should  be  permitted  to  'make  up  problems.' 
This  is  another  excellent  device  for  stimulating  vigorous 
thinking  [and,  we  should  add  in  the  present  connection,  for 
realizing  the  disciplinary  advantages  of  the  individual  assign- 
men  t].  The  best  of  the  original  problems  might  be  written 
in  a  book  called  '  Our  Original  Arithmetic '  or  '  Our  Own 
Arithmetic.'  The  problems  thus  preserved  may  be  used 
later  for  review  purposes.  Whenever  the  data  involved  in 
such  problems  are  of  an  informational  character,  they  should 
correspond  to  actual  conditions.  For  example,  it  is  not  wise 
to  assume  in  a  problem  that  the  distance  from  New  York  to 
Chicago  is  250  miles ;  that  wheat  sells  for  $6  a  bushel  and 
silk  for  $85  a  yard.  The  duplication  of  a  difficult  problem 
by  a  simpler  original  problem  frequently  clears  away  the 
difficulty."1 

The  Framing  of  Questions  by  Pupils.  —  The  suggestion 
just  given  regarding  the  framing  of  original  problems 
in  arithmetic  illustrates  a  general  practice  to  which  good 
teachers  often  resort.  At  frequent  intervals,  two  or 
three  members  of  the  class  are  asked  to  prepare  a 
list  of  questions  on  the  next  assignment;  the  teacher 

1  J.  C.  Brown  and  L.  D.  Coffman,  How  to  Teach  Arithmetic,  Chicago, 
1914,  p.  81. 


INDIVIDUAL   ASSIGNMENTS  8 1 

looks  over  the  list  before  the  recitation  and  permits  the 
pupil  having  the  most  satisfactory  questions  to  take  the 
place  of  the  teacher  in  "quizzing"  the  class.  The  main 
purpose  of  this  device,  of  course,  is  to  give  the  pupil  a 
very  effective  motive  for  reading  the  text  intelligently, 
but  it  is  also  a  suggestive  means  of  applying  this  principle 
of  the  individual  assignment.  The  following  report  of 
a  lesson  conducted  on  this  basis  is  taken  from  the  Ohio 
State  School  Survey  Report : 1 

"The  teacher  called  the  primary  history  class  and  said, 
'John,  you  begin.'  Apparently  each  pupil  had  prepared 
several  questions,  not  only  upon  the  present  assignment,  but 
upon  previous  work.  John  read  one  of  his  questions  and 
called  on  Jane  to  answer.  .  .  .  Another  was  called  on. 
The  pupils  then  informally  discussed  the  question.  The 
teacher  occasionally  commended,  added  to  the  question  and 
to  the  answer,  but  the  recitation  was  strictly  a  pupils'  exer- 
cise. The  teacher  inspired  enthusiasm,  energy,  and  control 
as  well  as  diligence  in  the  classroom.  This  shows  what  can 
be  done  by  a  'live'  teacher  with  practically  no  equipment." 

The  "  Project "  in  Manual  Training  as  a  Type  of 
Individual  Assignment. — The  use  of  the  term  "proj- 
ect "  to  designate  the  "  problem  "  in  construction  work 
of  all  sorts,  and  particularly  in  manual  training,  is 
particularly  apt.  It  implies  a  plan  to  be  worked  out  in 
detail,  an  idea  projected  into  the  future  as  a  guide  for 
systematic  effort.  This  conception  of  the  individual 
assignment  could  be  profitably  applied,  we  believe,  in  the 

1  Columbus,  1914,  p.  148. 
G 


82  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

teaching  of  the  "  book  "  subjects,  especially  in  mathe- 
matics, the  natural  sciences,  geography,  and  history. 
Young,1  for  example,  recommends  for  high  school 
mathematics  an  adaptation  of  the  laboratory  plan  of 
teaching  the  natural  sciences.  He  would  have  a  special 
room  provided  with  tables,  drawing  instruments,  large 
blackboard  areas,  mathematical  models,  surveying  in- 
struments, balances,  steelyards,  barometers,  thermom- 
eters, and  other  apparatus.  Here  the  pupils  would 
do  most  of  their  "  studying  "  for  the  classwork  (which 
this  laboratory  work  would  supplement  and  not  sup- 
plant), and  they  would  also  be  assigned  projects  and 
problems,  some  of  which,  we  infer,  might  come  under 
our  conception  of  individual  assignments. 

School  "  Dramatics  "  and  Festivals  as  Sources  of  In- 
dividual Assignments.  -  -  The  current  employment  of 
the  individual  problem  is  perhaps  most  clearly  illustrated 
in  the  dramatic  enterprises,  festivals,  and  pageants  that 
are  now  so  important  a  feature  of  school  life.  Here 
the  feeling  of  individual  responsibility  is  richly  intensi- 
fied by  the  public  nature  of  the  exercises  and  by  the  need, 
very  obvious  to  every  pupil,  of  making  the  affair  a 
"  success."  Under  the  stress  of  this  responsibility,  the 
attitude  toward  the  work  of  an  ordinarily  troublesome 
group  of  pupils  is  likely  to  be  radically  different  from  the 
attitude  toward  "  regular  "  school  work.  This  suggests 
at  once  the  importance  of  insuring  a  "  transfer  "  of  the 

1  J.  W.  A.  Young,  The  Teaching  of  Mathematics,  New  York,  1906, 
ch.  vi. 


INDIVIDUAL   ASSIGNMENTS  83 

more  favorable  attitude  to  the  regular  school  activities. 
Not  infrequently  the  glamour  and  excitement  incident  to 
the  special  exercises  serve  only  to  render  the  routine 
work  more  burdensome,  and  thus  the  disciplinary  diffi- 
culties are  aggravated  rather  than  alleviated.  Upon 
this  problem,  unfortunately,  the  advocates  of  festivals, 
pageants,  and  similar  enterprises  are  usually  silent.  It 
would  seem  possible,  however,  to  make  clear,  especially 
to  the  older  pupils,  the  close  connection  between  the  daily 
discipline  of  the  routine  work  and  marked  efficiency  in 
the  special  exercises. 

The  advantages  of  the  festival  from  the  point  of  view  of 
our  present  problem  are  admirably  summarized  by  Dykema  : l 

"Possibly  the  most  important  underlying  idea  is  this: 
For  those  who  are  presenting  the  festival,  there  are  certain 
advantages  that  can  hardly  be  secured  in  any  other  way. 
The  responsibility  for  the  occasion  introduces  a  peculiarly 
valuable  motive  which  affects  even  the  most  unresponsive 
members  of  the  class.  The  problem  of  learning  has  a  new 
aspect,  for  the  question  of  communication  here  appears  in  its 
best  form.  To  the  performers  comes  a  transforming  stand- 
ard ;  not  what  we  know,  but  what  we  can  make  others  know  ; 
not  what  we  can  feel,  but  what  we  can  make  others  feel. 
Very  soon  arises  a  consciousness  of  that  first  element  of  effec- 
tive communication  ;  namely,  absolute  clearness  and  definite- 
ness  on  the  part  of  the  one  who  is  to  give  the  message.  Pupils 
become  conscious  of  their  own  weaknesses,  as  they  strive  to 
collect  the  material.  In  the  desire  to  help  others  they  find 
they  must  prepare  themselves.  There  arises  a  spirit  of  self- 

1  Peter  Dykema,  in  The  Craftsman,  vol.  xii,  pp.  649  f.  (Quoted  by 
Irving  King:  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  New  York,  1912,  p.  270.) 


84  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

induced  activity  which  is  of  the  greatest  value.  Books  are 
read,  authorities  consulted,  pictures  studied,  that  the  teacher 
hardly  knows  about." 

It  is  clear  that  the  drama,  the  festival,  and  the  pageant 
may  fulfill  an  important  function  in  developing  among 
the  members  of  the  pupil  group  a  group  consciousness 
and  a  group  responsibility  that,  again  under  the  impor- 
tant conditions  of  "  transfer "  to  the  routine  school 
activities,  may  be  very  effective  agencies  in  transforming 
the  attitude  of  the  pupils  toward  school  discipline.  This 
phase  of  the  discussion,  however,  will  be  reserved  for  a 
later  chapter,  our  present  concern  being  with  the  oppor- 
tunities for  individual  assignments  afforded  by  these 
exercises. 

Concrete  Illustrations  of  the  Disciplinary  Employment 
of  the  Individual  Assignment.  —  By  way  of  summary  of 
the  preceding  discussion,  two  cases  may  be  cited  as 
clearly  illustrative  of  our  suggestions  regarding  the  use 
of  the  individual  assignment  as  a  means  of  transforming 
the  pupil's  attitude  toward  the  teacher  and  toward 
school  work.  The  first  deals  with  a  tactful  method  of 
quelling  incipient  disorder  in  a  high  school  assembly 
room.1 

The  high-school  assembly  room  was  nearly  full.  The 
weather  was  of  the  warm,  damp,  oppressive  sort.  The 
troublesome  pupil  (a  girl)  was  growing  restless  and  looking 
about  for  a  new  and  striking  way  of  creating  a  "stir."  She 
was  not  inherently  mischievous;  hi  general,  her  impulses 

1  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Fuller  for  this  illustration. 


INDIVIDUAL  ASSIGNMENTS  85 

were  unselfish  and  usually  commendable.  She  was,  however, 
nervous  and  excitable  by  nature,  acting  quickly  upon  the 
presentation  of  a  stimulus.  The  situation  was  rendered  the 
more  critical  by  the  fact  that,  as  she  was  a  natural  leader, 
whatever  she  did  was  likely  to  be  imitated  by  her  admiring 
mates.  Dealing  with  her  was  consequently  a  delicate  matter. 

She  began  her  mischief  by  making  paper  dolls.  One  or 
two  others  had  already  followed  her  example,  and  still  others 
were  waiting,  with  alert  senses,  to  see  how  matters  would  go 
before  committing  themselves  to  the  same  diversion.  It  was 
clearly  the  "psychological  moment"  for  action  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher.  The  recalcitrant  pupil  was  evidently  awaiting 
the  teacher's  move;  she  made  no  effort  to  conceal  the  dolls 
upon  her  desk ;  her  eyes  were  sparkling  and  her  cheeks 
flushed.  She  was  expecting  a  combat  —  in  fact,  her  whole 
conduct  was  a  challenge. 

"In  that  brief  moment  when  our  eyes  met,"  reports  the 
teacher,  "I  made  my  plans.  I  walked  slowly  down  to  her 
desk,  just  as  she  expected,  apparently  oblivious  to  the  two 
or  three  paper  dolls  on  it.  Anita  braced  herself  for  the 
impact.  'Anita,'  I  said  in  a  matter-of-fact  tone,  'have  you 
too  much  work  to  take  a  special  assignment  in  English?' 
She  was  so  suddenly  taken  aback  by  the  unexpected  request 
that  she  was  momentarily  thrown  off  her  guard,  and  I  quickly 
followed  up  my  advantage.  'That  conversation  between 
Priscilla  and  Nancy  in  to-morrow's  lesson  is  very  important, 
but  hard  to  read  because  of  the  dialect.  It  needs  special 
preparation.  Will  you  be  responsible  for  Priscilla's  part?' 
Anita  promised  with  an  entirely  different  expression  on  her 
face.  Without  glancing  at  the  desk  or  at  the  neighboring 
pupils,  I  walked  away  and  proceeded  to  assign  Nancy's  part 
to  another  pupil.  The  paper  dolls  unostentatiously  disap- 
peared from  Anita's  desk  and  she  became  absorbed  imme- 
diately in  a  book,  —  not  Silas  Marner,  by  the  way,  but  her 


86  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

geometry.  For  the  rest  of  the  period,  the  atmosphere  of  the 
entire  room  was  one  of  deep,  unbroken  study.  Nor  did  Anita 
during  all  the  rest  of  the  year  show  any  tendency  to  create 
disturbances  that  could  not  be  quelled  at  the  moment  by  a 
look  or  a  quiet  word." 

The  second  case  is  illustrative  of  a  type  of  individual 
assignment  that  we  have  not  as  yet  referred  to,  —  in- 
trusting a  troublesome  pupil  with  a  personal  responsibil- 
ity in  order  to  gain  his  confidence.  It  is  taken  from 
White's  School  Management: l 

"Many  years  ago,  the  writer  heard  or  read  this  touching 
incident  in  the  experience  of  a  teacher  who,  in  his  day,  was  one 
of  the  most  successful  of  the  Boston  masters.  There  came 
into  his  school  one  morning  a  rough  Irish  lad,  some  fifteen 
years  of  age.  His  rude  conduct  surprised  the  pupils ;  but  the 
master  saw  his  opportunity,  and  quietly  endured  the  dis- 
turbance until  noon,  when  he  requested  the  boy  to  remain. 
This  was  received  with  manifest  displeasure.  When  the 
other  pupils  had  left  the  room,  the  master  requested  the  boy 
to  come  to  his  desk.  This  was  silently  but  defiantly  refused ; 
but,  on  being  assured  that  he  would  not  be  punished,  the  boy 
sullenly  came  to  the  master's  desk.  By  a  few  questions,  he 
learned  that  the  boy  had  neither  home  nor  friends ;  that 
often  he  had  no  place  to  sleep,  and  often  nothing  to  eat  except 
as  he  begged  it.  He  also  confessed  that  he  had  come  to  school 
to  make  a  disturbance  and  see  what  would  be  done  about  it. 
The  master  assured  the  boy  that  he  would  like  to  be  his 
friend,  and,  if  he  would  come  to  school,  he  could  help  him 
to  better  his  prospects  in  life.  He  then  gave  the  boy  a  half 
dollar,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  go  to  a  certain  place  and 
buy  a  luncheon  for  him,  naming  the  articles.  This  unex- 

1P.  174. 


INDIVIDUAL  ASSIGNMENTS  87 

pected  expression  of  confidence  in  his  honor  touched  the 
rough  boy,  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  returned  with  the  desired 
articles  and  the  change.  The  master  had  won  his  pupil. 
He  divided  his  luncheon  with  the  hungry  fellow,  who  at 
first  declined  to  share  it,  but,  on  this  being  suggested,  took  it 
to  the  cloak  room  where  he  ate  what  was  really  his  only 
meal  of  the  day.  When  the  school  was  called  in  the  after- 
noon, the  Irish  boy  was  in  his  place,  changed  in  spirit  and 
purpose.  He  continued  in  school,  a  home  was  found  for  him, 
and,  when  we  learned  the  incident  years  later,  he  was  one  of 
the  successful  and  honored  business  merchants  of  Boston." 

It  is  essential  that  a  word  should  be  spoken  here  against 
too  wide  a  generalization  of  specific  instances  such  as 
those  just  cited,  and  especially  the  case  quoted  from  Mr. 
White.  The  problem  of  school  discipline  is  extremely 
complex,  and  practices  that  are  successful  under  certain 
conditions  may  be  quite  unsuccessful  under  conditions 
that  seem  identical.  The  difficulty  lies,  of  course,  in 
accounting  for  all  conditions,  and  this  difficulty  stands  in 
the  way  of  anything  approaching  a  "  science  "  of  dis- 
cipline based  upon  a  comparison  of  cases. 

Another  source  of  difficulty  in  interpreting  reports 
of  disciplinary  cases  is  suggested  by  the  tendency  of  the 
person  reporting  to  overemphasize  the  emotional  ele- 
ments and  thus  invalidate  the  use  of  the  case  as  a  basis 
for  a  rational,  empirical  study  of  the  disciplinary  problem. 
Mr.  White's  illustration,  while  clearly  indicating  a  type 
of  treatment  that  may  be  beneficial  in  certain  instances, 
is  to  be  somewhat  discounted  for  this  reason,  —  and  also 
because  of  the  uncertainty  that  must  always  attach 


88  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

to  third-hand  or  fourth-hand  reports.     We  shall  have 
occasion  to  reiterate  this  caution  in  succeeding  sections. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Give  a  clear  illustration  of  the  method  of  teaching 
through   "problems."     Compare  assignments  of  the  same 
problems  to  the  group  or  class  as  a  whole  with  the  assignment 
of  individual  problems.     Which 'serves  the  better  to  stimu- 
late individual  responsibility  ? 

2.  Devise  stimulating  individual  problems  for  a  fifth- 
grade  arithmetic  class,  a  fourth-grade  geography  class,  and 
a  seventh-grade  history  class.     Can  you  think  of  concrete 
applications  of   the  principle  of  individual   assignment  in 
the  teaching  of  formal  grammar,  composition,  literature,  and 
spelling  ? 

3.  Name  the  principal  dangers  that  should  be  avoided  in 
employing  this  principle  of  individual  assignments  as  one 
means  of  transforming  an  unruly  school. 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  advantages  of  having  pupils 
frame  questions  and  problems  related  to  the  subject-matter 
that  they  are  studying?    What  are  the  limitations  of  this 
practice  ? 

5.  What  is  the  significance  of  the  term  "project"  as  used 
in  manual  training  and  related  subjects?    What  conditions 
should  be  met  by  the  "projects"  if  they  are  to  stimulate  indi- 
vidual responsibility  in  an  effective  way  ? 

6.  Under  what  conditions  will  a  temperate  employment  of 
dramatics,  pageants,  and  other  public  or  semipublic  exercises 
stimulate  individual  responsibility?    What  dangers  would 
you  have  in  mind  in  employing  these  devices?    Have  you 
ever  known  them  to  be  employed  with  evil  effects  ? 

7.  Under  what  conditions  would  you  give  a  very  trouble- 
some pupil  unusual  responsibilities  for  looking  after  certain 


INDIVIDUAL  ASSIGNMENTS  89 

phases  of  school  routine,  or  for  certain  trusts  (taking  messages 
to  the  principal,  going  to  the  store  to  purchase  supplies,  and 
the  like)  ?  Under  what  conditions  would  these  practices 
be  looked  upon  by  other  pupils  as  offering  a  reward  for  mis- 
conduct ? 

8.  Note  at  a  teachers'  institute  or  similar  gathering  the 
concrete  instances  of  classroom  practices  used  by  the  speakers 
to  illustrate  their  principles.     In  each  case  ask  yourself 
(and  perhaps  occasionally  the  speaker)  how  far  it  is  safe  to 
generalize  from  the  case  cited.     Ask  in  how  far  the  principle 
that  is  illustrated  would  apply  in  situations  where  the  condi- 
tions were  slightly  different. 

9.  An  institute  instructor  once  drew  a  heart-rending  picture 
of  a  girl  who  was  kept  after  school  for  tardiness  when,  upon 
investigation,  it  was  found  that  this  girl  had  to  prepare  the 
breakfast  at  home  and  wash  the  breakfast  dishes  before 
coming  to  school.     The  attending  teachers  inferred  from  the 
narration  of  the  incident  that  the  speaker  disapproved  of 
punishing  pupils  for  tardiness.     Could  the  instance  be  legiti- 
mately used  to  support  this]  belief  ?     What  important  prin- 
ciple of  school  management  could  legitimately  be  illustrated 
by  the  incident  ? 


CHAPTER  VII 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL:  (D)  STIMULAT- 
ING GROUP  RESPONSIBILITY 

THE  source  of  greatest  difficulty  in  the  unruly  school 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  "  group  sanctions  "  attach  to 
the  wrong  kind  of  behavior.  Under  any  conditions,  a 
large  proportion  of  the  pupils  will  strive  for  the  approval 
of  their  fellows.  As  was  suggested  in  an  earlier  chapter, 
some  will  not  be  largely  influenced  by  this  factor,  but 
these  are  distinctly  atypical.  What  is  ordinarily  termed 
the  "goody-goody"  child  will  be  tractable  and  docile  even 
under  classroom  conditions  that  make  disobedience  and 
disorder  the  lines  of  least  resistance ;  and  the  naturally 
vicious,  the  abnormally  "  willful,"  and  the  inordinately 
lazy  individuals  will  be  sources  of  disciplinary  difficulty 
even  when  the  "  fashion  "  of  good  order  has  been  as 
firmly  established  as  possible.  These  are  the  specific 
variations  which  will  be  dealt  with  later.  For  the 
present,  our  concern  is  still  exclusively  with  the  mass 
of  normal  pupils. 

The  Importance  of  Developing  Group  Responsibility. 

-  The  objective  point  in  this  connection  is  so  to  organize 

the  group  activities  that  the  group  sanctions  will  attach 

to  order  and  industry,  and  impel  the  normal  pupil  to 

90 


STIMULATING    GROUP    RESPONSIBILITY  QI 

conduct  himself  consistently  with  the  welfare  of  the 
group.  This  is  the  characteristic  par  excellence  of  the 
"  well-disciplined  "  school.  Nothing  else  will  take  its 
place  as  a  factor  in  what  may  be  termed  "  educative  " 
discipline,  —  that  is,  in  the  type  of  discipline  that  will 
be  effective  in  molding  permanent  habits,  standards, 
and  ideals  in  the  pupil  body.  Schools  that  lack  this 
group  consciousness  may,  it  is  true,  be  dominated  by  a 
strong  teacher,  and  these  schools  may  be  characterized 
by  a  measure  of  order  and  industry  quite  meriting  the 
approval  even  of  the  most  critical  observer,  but  it  is 
likely  that  a  prolonged  study  of  the  situation  would 
reveal  antagonisms  and  enmities  that  have  only  been 
covered  up  and  not  destroyed  by  the  vigorous  but  not 
wholly  successful  methods  of  the  martinet.  The  situa- 
tion, in  other  words,  is  not  likely  to  be  permanent  unless 
the  control  is  kept  at  a  high  tension,  nor  is  it  likely  to 
result  in  an  effective  and  sympathetic  attitude  of  the 
pupils  toward  law,  order,  and  properly  constituted  au- 
thority. It  is  in  this  particular  that  the  ideal  of  school 
discipline  has  been  most  radically  transformed  within 
the  last  quarter  century.  The  older  idea  was  that  of 
the  teacher  as  a  "  master  " ;  the  present-day  idea  is 
that  of  the  teacher  as  a  counselor  and  guide. 

The  Limitations  of  Group  Responsibility:  The  Old 
Idea  of  the  Teacher  as  a  Master  to  be  Modified  but  not 
entirely  Abandoned.  —  What  has  just  been  said,  how- 
ever, does  not  mean  that  the  older  idea  is  to  be  entirely 
abandoned.  The  ideal  relationship  between  the  teacher 


Q2  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

and  the  pupil  body  is  somewhat  analogous  to  the  ideal 
relationship  between  parents  and  children,  between  the 
wise  employer  and  his  employees,  between  a  responsible 
official  and  his  subordinates.  The  fact  of  responsi- 
bility, in  other  words,  must  never  be  forgotten  by  the 
teacher,  the  parent,  the  employer,  or  the  official.  The 
responsibility  must,  in  turn,  be  balanced  by  a  propor- 
tionate measure  of  authority  which  must  be  clearly  recog- 
nized by  the  pupils  in  the  school,  the  children  in  the 
family,  the  employees  in  business  and  industry,  the 
subordinates  in  all  forms  of  organization.  But  granted 
these  two  factors — first,  the  appreciation  of  responsibility 
by  those  in  authority,  and,  secondly,  the  recognition  of  the 
authority  of  those  who  are  responsible  by  the  subordi- 
nates —  the  functions  of  the  school,  the  home,  the  pri- 
vate business,  or  the  organization  are  best  fulfilled  when 
there  exists  a  perfect  rapport  between  the  two  parties, 
when  coercion  is  least  in  evidence,  and  when  harmoni- 
ous, intelligent,  and  sympathetic  cooperation  is  most  in 
evidence.  But  the  fact  of  responsibility  in  each  case  may 
mean  at  times  the  exercise  of  authority  with  full  rigor. 
The  teacher  at  times  must  command  rather  than  lead 
or  guide,  just  as  the  father  must  insist  that  his  will  be 
carried  out,  the  employer  that  his  demands  be  met,  the 
responsible  official  that  his  orders  be  obeyed.  The  new 
ideal  of  discipline  does  not  mean  that  the  authority  of 
the  teacher  is  to  be  surrendered  or  that  his  responsibility 
for  the  welfare  of  the  majority  is  to  be  lessened.  It  is 
important  that  this  principle  be  emphasized  because 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  93 

there  has  been  a  tendency  to  interpret  the  new  ideal 
of  discipline  as  meaning  the  surrender  of  authority  by 
the  teacher,  and  the  reduction  of  the  school  to  a  self- 
governing  community  which,  under  a  regime  of  this 
type,  quickly  becomes  an  ungoverned  and  ungovern- 
able community. 

The  Danger  of  purchasing  Order  with  Favors.  —  Nor 
can  any  institution  supported  and  commissioned  by  the 
people  as  a  whole  to  instruct  and  discipline  the  children 
of  the  people  afford  to  buy  the  obedience  and  industry 
of  its  pupil  body  as  if  these  were  favors  to  be  given  or 
withheld  at  will.  The  greatest  danger  in  a  democracy 
is  typified  by  just  such  practices :  the  tendency  to  infer 
that,  because  the  forms  and  restrictions  of  government 
"  come  from  the  people,"  any  individual  among  the  peo- 
ple, recognizing  his  own  right  to  an  "  equal  voice  "  in 
making  these  forms  and  restrictions,  may  violate  the 
forms  and  override  the  restrictions  at  his  pleasure.  As 
Perry  l  so  aptly  states  the  case : 

"The  individual  as  a  subject  is  a  unit,  but  as  a  sovereign 
he  is  a  fraction.  The  confusion  arises  when  the  individual, 
realizing  that  he  is  a  unit  subject,  concludes  too  that  he  is  a 
unit  sovereign." 

The  attempt,  then,  to  build  up  an  effective  social 
spirit  in  the  school  through  the  granting  of  privileges  or 
immunities  that  may  be  interpreted  by  pupils  as  bribes 
to  order  and  industry  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  bad  practice. 

1  A.  C.  Perry,  Jr.,  The  Status  of  the  Teacher,  Boston,  1912,  p.  9. 


94  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

Certainly  proposals  implying  that  those  in  authority 
are  incompetent  to  manage  the  school  and  suggesting 
the  inference  that  the  pupil  body  must  be  bribed,  cajoled, 
or  flattered  into  compliance  with  reasonable  demands, 
point  to  a  type  of  "  self-government  "  that  will  spell 
anarchy  in  the  end. 

A  situation  was  recently  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
writer  which  both  illustrates  this  danger  and  typifies  the 
evils  that  are  likely  to  accompany  a  short-sighted  policy  of 
pupil  self-government.  A  small  city  has  been  for  some  years 
the  scene  of  factional  difficulties  in  connection  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  high  school.  Principals  have  succeeded 
one  another  with  alarming  rapidity,  first  this  and  then  the 
other  faction  coming  into  control,  displacing  the  former 
incumbent,  and  installing  his  successor.  Further  than  this, 
active  representatives  of  the  two  factions  have  openly  gone 
into  the  school  and  organized  the  pupils  for  or  against  the 
ruling  administration.  As  a  result  the  discipline  of  the 
school  has  become  completely  demoralized.  The  pupils 
openly  boast  that  it  is  through  their  good-will  that  a  principal 
or  teacher  holds  his  or  her  position.  Under  a  condition  of 
this  sort  (intensified  as  it  happens  to  be  at  the  present  time 
by  a  weak-kneed  superintendent  who  curries  favor  with  the 
pupils  by  encouraging  them  in  the  belief  that  they  are  govern- 
ing themselves),  the  ends  for  which  the  school  exists  are  quite 
negated,  and  the  lot  of  the  self-respecting  classroom  teacher 
is  intolerable. 

Here  we  have  the  evil  tendencies  of  a  democracy  in  an 
exaggerated  form.  Pupils  have  come  to  look  upon  order, 
obedience,  and  industry  as  favors  that  they  have  the  power 
to  bestow  in  return  for  certain  favors  which  those  in  authority 
bestow  upon  them. 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  95 

The  "  Honor  System  "  as  a  Case  in  Point.  —  It  is, 
indeed,  a  difficult  matter  to  judge  in  every  instance 
whether  a  practice  or  policy  that  promises  immediate 
success  in  meeting  a  desperate  situation  will  prove 
ultimately  and  permanently  successful,  or  whether  it  will 
in  the  end  give  rise  to  results  that  are  worse  than  the 
initial  evil.  The  "  honor  system  "  as  a  cure  for  the  evils 
of  cheating  in  examinations  is  a  case  in  point,  and  illus- 
trates admirably  both  the  advantages  and  the  dangers 
of  stimulating  group  responsibility  for  individual  con- 
duct. An  animated  discussion  of  the  ethics  of  the  honor 
system  as  applied  to  college  administration  appeared 
recently  in  the  columns  of  The  Nation,1  and  many  of  the 
points  brought  out  in  this  discussion  have  direct  reference 
to  our  present  problem. 

The  initial  article  took  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  editor 
from  Professor  O.  W.  Firkins,  attacking  the  honor  system 
primarily  on  ethical  grounds.  The  doctrine  upon  which  the 
system  is  based,  he  contends,  "favors  interpretations  which 
its  upholders  would  be  the  first  to  reject,  since  they  subvert 
the  foundations  of  morality."  He  goes  on  to  say:  "The 
student  who  is  encouraged  to  think  that  his  honesty  is  the 
proper  reward  for  his  teacher's  obsequious  withdrawal  [from 
the  examination  room],  proceeds  to  the  pleasing  inference 
that  his  cheating  is  the  fitting  punishment  for  his  teacher's 
continuance  in  the  room.  Thus  for  the  wholesomely  rigor- 
ous maxim  of  our  forefathers,  'No  honesty,  no  trust,'  is  sub- 
stituted the  emasculating  and  corrupting  motto,  'No  trust, 
no  honesty.'  To  what  consequences,  in  the  application  of 

1  Issues  of  May  7,  14,  21,  1914,  and  succeeding  issues. 


96  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

this  doctrine  in  the  wider  school  of  life,  might  not  the  apt 
pupil  in  this  form  of  casuistry  be  persuasively  and  rationally 
led  ?  The  disbelief  of  his  hearers  in  his  words  will  constitute 
in  his  mind  an  authorization  to  lie ;  the  refusal  of  a  firm  to 
give  him  credit  will  be  interpreted  as  a  license  to  purloin  its 
goods.  A  high-minded  university  cannot  stoop  to  ask  its 
students  to  be  virtuous  in  return  for  this  or  that  act  of  con- 
sideration on  its  part ;  it  cannot  buy  then-  integrity." 

W.  A.  Colwell,1  in  replying  to  Professor  Firkins,  does  not 
take  issue  on  the  point  of  ethics  that  the  latter  raised,  but 
rather  denies  that  the  student's  attitude  under  the  honor 
system  is  that  of  one  who  is  being  bribed.  After  pointing 
out  the  two  essential  features  of  the  honor  system  (first,  the 
pledge  not  to  cheat,  and,  secondly,  the  pledge  to  report  to 
the  student  committee  any  one  detected  in  cheating) ,  he  says : 
"  The  virtuous  student  receives  no  quid  pro  quo.  His  honesty 
is  not  conditioned  upon  his  teacher's  absence  or  presence.  .  .  . 
Exactly  the  same  credit  redounds  to  the  individual  member 
of  the  group  as  to  a  member  of  any  other  self-governing  com- 
munity —  and  no  more.  He  has  only  done  his  duty  when  he 
obeys  and  upholds  its  laws."  He  further  contends  that,  if 
the  honor  system  works,  "the  sense  of  responsibility  for  one's 
self  and  for  the  group,  which  it  develops,  is  worth  much,  and 
it  is  a  distinct  advance  over  any  system  of  inspection,  but 
each  system  must  of  course  be  judged  by  its  results,  and  if 
the  students  do  not  enforce  the  honor  system,  it  becomes  a  wretched 
farce  and  should  be  abandoned"  2 

These  two  statements  from  divergent  points  of  view 
indicate  very  clearly  both  the  very  real  dangers  and  the 
very  effective  virtues  which  inhere  in  the  doctrine  of 
pupil  or  student  self-government.  The  form  or  the  letter 

1  The  Nation,  issue  of  June  4,  1914,  p.  663.          2  Italics  ours. 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  97 

counts  for  little;  the  spirit  or  the  attitude  is  all-important. 
A  scheme  of  self-government  that  succeeds  in  one  school 
may  work  havoc  in  another,  and  the  success  of  the  honor 
system,  like  the  success  of  any  other  form  of  self-govern- 
ment, depends  upon  conditions  that  are  not  always  met 
simply  by  establishing  the  system.  To  the  pupil  or  the 
student,  the  examination  may  be  the  most  important 
event  in  his  school  life,  or  it  may  be  merely  a  huge  joke. 
If  it  is  the  former,  the  honor  system,  unless  rigorously  ad- 
ministered, will  be  interpreted  as  an  injustice  by  the 
really  honorable  pupils,  for  they  will  see  that  others  by 
cheating  obtain  with  a  minimum  of  effort  the  same 
rewards  for  which  they  themselves  must  struggle.  If  it 
is  the  latter,  an  "  honor  system  "  will  have  but  negligible 
influence  in  any  direction,  and  is  more  likely  to  become 
part  and  parcel  of  the  joke  than  to  serve  as  a  means  of 
inculcating  the  ideals  of  group  responsibility. 

J.  K.  Stableton1  has  called  attention  to  the  marked 
sense  of  injustice  that  many  pupils  feel  when  the  teacher 
"  trusts  the  class  "  at  examination  time. 

"...  The  teacher  says  .  .  .  '  I  want  them  [the  pupils] 
to  feel  that  I  trust  them.'  'It  makes  them  honest.'  .  .  . 
The  teacher  .  .  .  held  to  the  thought  that  she  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  make  them  think  she  mistrusted  them,  and  in  so 
doing  gave  the  ones  inclined  to  take  unfair  advantage  every 
opportunity  to  do  it.  The  result  was  that  there  was  dis- 
honesty throughout  almost  the  entire  class.  On  talking  with 
some  of  the  class  they  said:  'Mr.  Stableton,  in  an  examina- 

1 " Examinations,  How?"  School  and  Home  Education,  June,  1914. 
H 


98  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

tion  it  is  fair  for  everybody  to  have  the  same  show,  and  it  is 
not  a  fair  examination  when  every  one  does  not  have  the  same 
show.'  '  We  don't  believe  hi  cheating,  but  when  the  teacher 
lets  every  one  who  wants  to  cheat,  cheat,  and  grades  them 
just  as  if  they  had  been  honest,  all  we  can  do  is  to  get  help 
just  as  the  cheaters  do,  so  that  all  of  us  may  have  the  same 
chance.'  'We  don't  think  we  are  dishonest,  but  we  do  think 
the  teacher  ought  to  make  her  examinations  mean  some- 
thing.' 'None  of  us  is  proud  of  the  grades  he  gets  in  this 
kind  of  an  examination.'" 

The  paramount  difficulty  lies,  then,  in  insuring  the 
appropriate  attitude  in  the  pupil,  —  the  attitude  of  re- 
sponsibility as  a  member  of  the  group  for  the  conduct  of 
all  of  the  members  of  the  group,  including  himself.  No 
one  in  his  right  mind  could  assume  that  this  is  a  simple 
problem  to  be  solved  merely  by  the  establishment  of  cer- 
tain forms  of  government,  —  the  difficulties  of  develop- 
ing in  adult  communities  an  effective  group  or  collective 
responsibility  are  all  too  discouraging.  Nor  do  we  think 
that  it  would  be  at  all  wise  to  attempt  through  a  forcing 
process  to  stimulate  group  responsibility  in  a  pupil 
community  to  a  point  that  would  be  unattainable  in  an 
adult  community.  Generally  speaking,  the  operation  of 
group  sanctions  is  most  effective  when  least  in  evidence. 
By  this  we  mean  that  the  pupils  who  are  actively  en- 
gaged in  their  work,  who  feel  the  responsibility  for  ful- 
filling the  demands  that  fall  upon  them  individually, 
will  react  as  a  group  and  in  a  very  effective  way  against 
conduct  that  is  inconsistent  with  their  welfare  and  with 
the  standards  that  have  been  tacitly  accepted  as  govern- 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  99 

ing  the  situation.  In  short,  the  steps  for  transforming 
the  unruly  school  suggested  and  outlined  in  the  three 
preceding  chapters,  and  other  measures  of  an  analogous 
type,  should  serve  automatically  to  create  the  appro- 
priate social  spirit,  —  to  make  the  individual  feel  the 
compelling  power  of  the  group  standards  toward  right 
kinds  of  conduct. 

Specific  Measures  that  may  be  taken  to  intensify 
Group  Responsibility:  Demanding  Collective  Reparation 
for  Collective  Offenses.  —  We  have  just  said  that  it  will 
probably  be  less  wise  to  force  group  responsibility  than 
to  depend  upon  its  automatic  development  through  the 
operation  of  other  factors.  There  are,  however,  occa- 
sions when  this  group  responsibility  can  and  should  be 
directly  appealed  to,  and  if  these  occasions  are  handled 
skillfully,  the  net  outcome  should  be  an  increased  effi- 
ciency of  this  force  in  controlling  the  behavior  of  indi- 
viduals. An  instance  quite  typical  of  such  an  occasion 
is  furnished  in  the  following  case :  l 

Mr.  McCormack,  principal  of  a  large  high  school,  was 
confronted  with  the  imminent  danger  of  a  mutiny  caused  by 
a  very  trivial  occurrence  at  a  rehearsal  of  the  school  chorus. 
A  boy  of  sensitive  and  refractory  temperament  wore  a  pair 
of  low  shoes  to  rehearsal.  A  mischievous  fellow  pupil,  sitting 
behind  him,  reached  under  the  seat  and  removed  one  of  the 
shoes  which  was  promptly  passed  around  among  the  male 
members  of  the  chorus.  A  little  disturbance  was  thus  caused, 
and  the  teacher  reprimanded  the  pupil  who  had  lost  his  shoe, 

1 T.  J.  McCormack,  "Utilizing  Moral  Crises  for  Ethical  Instruction," 
School  and  Home  Education,  December,  1913,  pp.  123  ff. 


100  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

and  finally  sent  him  from  the  room.  "The  student  departed 
from  the  room,  vowing  he  would  never  enter  the  organization 
again ;  and  his  muttering  having  been  overheard  by  his  com- 
rades, some  of  them  incidentally  remarked  that  if  he  were 
not  allowed  to  reenter  the  chorus,  they  would  also  refuse  to 
participate  in  its  exercises.  A  mutual  understanding  or  mis- 
understanding, of  which  no  one  was  the  author  and  no  one  was 
the  ringleader,  arose;  an  indefinable  atmosphere  of  mutiny 
and  conspiracy  which  no  one  could  trace  to  its  origin  and 
font  was  created.  On  the  following  day  the  boys  of  the 
chorus  did  not  appear,  and  the  calamitous  situation  was 
created." 

A  situation  of  this  sort  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  disciplin- 
ary difficulties  to  deal  with.  The  first  principle  of  effective 
discipline  is  to  locate  responsibility  for  disorder  in  an  individ- 
ual or  in  individuals.  But  here  individual  treatment  was 
impossible.  The  offense  was  a  group  offense.  "I  then 
decided,"  says  Mr.  McCormack,  "  that  the  crime  or  offense 
that  had  been  committed  was  a  collective  crime  or  offense, 
and  should  receive  a  collective  solution.  I  called  the  boys  of 
the  chorus  together  in  conference ;  told  them  frankly  of  the 
difficulty  in  which  I  had  been  placed ;  that  a  grave  offense, 
in  fact  the  gravest  possible  offense  against  a  school,  a  society, 
or  a  nation,  had  been  committed,  — namely,  a  mutiny,  a  con- 
spiracy, which  was  tantamount  to  treason ;  that  the  offense 
had  not  been  committed  by  an  individual  and  hence  no  in- 
dividual could  be  punished ;  that  a  social  or  institutional  in- 
justice had  been  committed,  and  that  collective,  institutional 
amends  should  be  made.  I  showed  them  how,  if  such  prac- 
tices were  continued,  the  life  and  peace  of  the  school  would 
be  threatened,  that  at  present  the  position  and  livelihood  of 
one  teacher  were  at  stake,  and  depicted  how,  out  of  an  in- 
significant and  trivial  accident,  by  a  subtle  social  interplay 
of  thoughtless  words  and  actions,  a  situation  had  been  created 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  IOI 

which,  though  it  had  to  be  removed,  every  one  saw  and  felt 
I  was  powerless  to  resolve.  I  asked  them  as  friends  if  such 
were  not  the  case ;  told  them  that  I  knew  that  not  a  single 
individual  person  present  had  been  guilty  of  the  offense  com- 
mitted ;  that  it  was  a  collective  crime  with  which  they  had 
only  partly  and  ignorantly  identified  themselves,  but  that 
it  was  a  hideous  reality  nevertheless." 

The  boys  were  deeply  impressed  with  this  serious  out- 
come of  a  careless  prank,  and  the  principal  availed  himself 
of  the  psychological  moment  to  show  what  society  would 
justify  him  in  doing  in  a  case  of  this  sort.  He  pointed  out 
that  he  could  take  any  member  of  the  offending  group  and 
punishthim  for  the  sins  of  the  group  as  a  whole.  He  showed 
that  this  had  been  done  in  the  past  and  cited  the  case  of  the 
Chicago  anarchists.  "This  idea  of  the  punishment  of  the 
innocent  seemed  to  horrify  them,  but  the  manner  in  which 
we  had  approached  our  problem  had  made  the  situation  and 
the  significance  of  all  its  dangers  so  apparent  and  real  that 
it  began  to  dawn  upon  them  that  I  was  not  only  right,  but 
also  not  so  powerless  as  I  had  professed  to  be.  I  had,  in 
other  words,  taught  them  an  impressive  lesson  in  civics  and 
in  social  and  institutional  ethics. 

"And  what  was  the  result?  The  lesson,  and  not  the 
misdemeanor,  now  occupied  the  forefront  of  our  collective 
thought.  Both  students  and  I  felt  that  the  lesson  towered 
ineffably  above  the  crime,  and  in  our  corporate  joy  of  moral 
conquest,  we  were  almost  glad  that  the  moral  dereliction  had 
occurred." 

With  this  favorable  attitude,  the  solution  was  simple. 
The  principal  proposed  a  collective  apology  as  a  proper  pun- 
ishment of  the  group  for  this  collective  offense,  and  this 
apology  was  presented  before  the  whole  school  by  a  selected 
spokesman  who  chanced  to  be  the  lad  whose  missing  shoe  had 
given  rise  to  all  of  the  difficulty.  "The  sequel  was  felicitous 


102  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

in  the  extreme.  Everybody  felt  relieved  and  happy,  and 
everybody  felt  satisfied  that  justice  to  all  parties  had  been 
done.  Incidentally,  all  members  concerned  learned  a  lesson 
in  civic  and  social  responsibility,  in  the  danger  of  conspiracies, 
in  the  heartlessness  of  the  law,  and  in  the  possibility  of  extrica- 
tion from  difficult  circumstances  with  credit  to  all  concerned." 

Rallying  the  Pupils  to  support  the  Good  Name  of  the 
School.  —  One  occasion  at  which  a  direct  appeal  may  be 
made  to  the  responsibility  of  the  group  as  a  whole,  then, 
is  when  collective  offenses  analogous  to  that  just  de- 
scribed have  been  committed,  and  can  be  adequately 
met  only  by  collective  reparation.  Another  legitimate 
occasion  is  when  the  good  name  of  the  school  as  a  whole 
is  at  stake,  and  the  pupils  can  be  rallied  to  support  the 
school's  reputation.  Excellent  instances  of  this  are  fur- 
nished by  the  "  school  surveys  "  which  have  been  so 
numerous  within  the  past  few  years.  During  a  survey, 
a  system  of  schools  is  necessarily  "  on  its  best  behavior." 
This  spirit  animates  every  teacher  and  is  likely  to  ani- 
mate every  pupil.  Almost  without  exception,1  the  re- 
ports of  these  surveys  remark  upon  the  excellent  order 
and  discipline  that  the  investigators  found  in  inspecting 
classroom  conditions.  Some  of  the  reports  state  that  in 
visiting  hundreds  of  classrooms,  not  a  single  case  of  dis- 
order was  found.  Any  one  even  slightly  familiar  with 
school  work  would  conclude  at  once  that  this  condition 
is  brought  about  by  the  presence  of  investigators  and 

1  The  notable  exception  is  the  Report  of  the  New  York  School 
Inquiry. 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  103 

the  tension  of  a  situation  that  all  recognize  as  critical. 
The  reports  go  further  than  is  necessary  when  they  imply 
that  this  represents  permanent  and  long-existing  con- 
ditions in  a  large  system  of  schools.  But,  even  if  the 
excellent  order  is  due  in  part  to  the  presence  of  an  in- 
vestigating body,  one  would  not  deny  for  a  moment  its 
"  tonic  "  effect  upon  the  future  conduct  of  the  pupils. 
Their  group  loyalty  has  been  appealed  to,  and  appealed 
to  effectively.  Their  collective  pride  has  been  aroused, 
and  one  of  the  first  steps  in  the  development  of  a  healthful 
and  permanent  "  fashion  of  order  "  has  been  taken. 

Encouraging  Pupils  to  criticize  One  Another.  —  Un- 
doubtedly the  encouragement  of  mutual  criticism  among 
pupils  may  be  made  an  effective  device  for  securing 
attention,  and  it  may  perhaps  be  listed  as  one  means 
of  stimulating  group  responsibility.  The  practice,  how- 
ever, involves  rather  serious  dangers.  Children  who 
come  to  look  upon  correcting  others  as  a  virtue  are 
likely  to  become  hypercritical  and  disagreeable,  if  not 
unbearable.  Nevertheless,  the  device  rests  upon  very 
powerful  instinctive  forces,  and  if  it  could  be  employed 
without  deleterious  results,  there  would  be  no  doubt  of 
its  value.  Some  teachers  certainly  employ  it  very 
effectively. 

One  teacher  writes  to  me  as  follows:  "I  have  charge  of 
an  eighth-grade  grammar  class  comprising  thirty-eight 
pupils.  There  are  six  or  seven  'troublesome'  pupils  in  the 
class.  As  a  method  of  arousing  interest  and  handling  the 
questions  of  discipline,  I  have  encouraged  the  pupils  to 


IO4  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

criticize  each  other.  There  are  a  few  leaders  in  the  class 
who  took  to  the  plan  quickly,  and  their  interest  and  effort 
brought  the  other  members  forward.  While  one  pupil  is 
reciting,  the  class  listens  attentively.  After  the  pupil  has 
finished,  those  who  have  doubts  regarding  the  correctness  of 
the  recitation  rise,  and,  in  a  courteous  manner,  ask  questions 
(more  or  less  '  leading ')  of  the  one  who  has  made  the  mistake. 
Often  the  questions  are  so  direct  that  the  one  who  has  made 
the  mistake  is  able  at  once  to  make  his  own  correction. 

"I  have  seen  timid  pupils  become  so  interested  in  par- 
ticipating in  the  'game'  that  timidity  slipped  from  them  at 
once.  The  consciousness  that  they  'knew'  gave  them  a 
confidence  that  they  had  not  felt  before.  .  .  .  During 
five  months'  trial  of  this  plan,  I  have  never  seen  a  pupil 
irritated  or  angry  because  of  a  criticism.  One  boy  has  given 
me  great  help.  He  has  been  most  persistent  after  every 
mistake.  This  persistency  has  aroused  every  other  member 
of  the  class  to  the  closest  attention  when  he  recites  to  see  if, 
by  any  chance,  some  one  may  not  '  come  back  at  him '  effec- 
tively. But  through  it  all  there  is  the  spirit  of  good  com- 
radeship." 

The  need  of  caution  in  the  employment  of  this  device 
has  perhaps  been  sufficiently  emphasized,  but  a  practi- 
cal corrective  that  will  tend  to  offset  the  obvious 
dangers  may  be  suggested.  It  has  come  to  us  from  a 
successful  superintendent  who  has  seen  clearly  the 
dangers  that  the  hypercritical  spirit  involves. 

"In  all  of  our  schools  we  seek  to  establish  the  proper 
attitude  toward  criticism.  We  fight  sullenness  and  in  every 
way  we  appeal  to  the  pupils  to  avoid  '  pouting.'  For  example, 
in  the  reading  classes  we  ask  the  pupil  to  criticize  his  own 
reading,  and  to  this  end  we  suggest  schemes  for  criticism. 


STIMULATING   GROUP    RESPONSIBILITY  105 

When  a  pupil  admits  that  he  has  not  read  as  well  as  he  should, 
he  is  requested  to  try  again.  This  procedure  is  varied,  of 
course,  for  different  subjects,  but  always  we  try  to  have 
the  child  appreciate  the  necessity  for  criticism  and  correc- 
tion, and  to  realize  that  those  who  criticize  are  not  neces- 
sarily his  enemies." 

Espionage  and  Talebearing  as  related  to  Group 
Responsibility.  —  One  of  the  marked  difficulties  with  all 
forms  of  pupil  or  student  self-government  that  place 
responsibility  directly  and  explicitly  in  the  hands  of  the 
pupils  or  students  themselves  is  that  an  ethical  question 
of  large  importance  in  the  eyes  of  children  and  youth  is 
inevitably  raised  to  the  fore.  The  "  honor  system,"  for 
example,  compels  the  student  to  report  those  among  his 
fellows  who  cheat  on  examinations ;  the  "  pupil-city  " 
or  "  school-city  "  forms  of  government  have  their  officers 
corresponding  to  the  police,  and  also  encourage  in  all 
possible  ways  the  reporting  of  offenses  by  "  citizens." 
An  organized  and  carefully  fostered  system  of  espionage 
is  a  necessary  part  of  the  formal  machinery. 

The  influence  of  organized  forms  of  pupil  self-govern- 
ment in  teaching  pupils  to  guard  their  own  rights  through 
informing  on  offenders,  of  distinguishing  between  "  tat- 
tling "  and  giving  testimony,  is,  indeed,  urged  by  some 
of  the  propagandists  of  this  movement.  Ray,1  for  ex- 
ample, in  commending  an  organized  system  in  which 
espionage  plays  an  important  part,  advances  the  follow- 
ing argument : 

1  J.  T.  Ray,  Democratic  Government  of  Schools,  Bloomington,  111. ; 
quoted  by  King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  p.  295. 


IO6  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

"Will  not  the  young  man  who  thinks  it  right  not  to  tell 
on  his  schoolmates,  and  who  is  allowed  to  believe  so,  make 
the  future  alderman  who  thinks  it  honorable  to  refuse  to 
expose  the  briber  who  offered  him  a  thousand  dollars  for  his 
vote?  In  short,  will  not  the  man  be  what  the  boy  was 
taught  to  be?  Can  the  impure  spring  have  flowing  from  it 
anything  but  an  impure  stream  ?  As  the  child's  community 
life  is  in  school,  so  will  be  his  civic  life  in  after  years. 

"What  should  school  life  teach  the  boy  ?  It  should  teach 
him  that  he  is  part  of  the  school  community  —  responsible 
for  its  acts,  and  affected  by  every  act  of  his  schoolmates. 
He  should,  therefore,  be  taught  that  the  Mosaic  law,  the 
English  common  law,  and  the  statute  law  of  his  state  make 
it  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  testify  when  called  upon; 
that  hiding  a  crime  makes  him  a  party  to  it.  He  has,  there- 
fore, no  right  to  set  these  principles  aside  in  his  school  life, 
either  because  of  his  own  wishes,  or  the  false  idea  of  the 
teacher.  He  should  be  taught  to  see  clearly  that  the  restric- 
tions placed  upon  his  actions  in  school  are  due  chiefly  to  the 
abuse  of  liberties  by  a  few  of  his  schoolmates,  and  he  should, 
therefore,  be  directly  interested  in  the  conduct  of  these 
schoolmates.  He  should  be  taught  to  feel  that  the  rightly 
disposed  boys  should  assert  themselves  as  positively  and 
persistently  for  good  conduct  as  the  careless  or  indifferent 
boys  do  for  evil." 

Can  an  effective  group  responsibility  be  engendered 
without  an  organized  system  which  rests  upon  a  system 
of  mutual  espionage?  It  is  true  that  the  espionage 
which  these  organized  systems  involve  is  somewhat 
different  from  that  type  of  reporting  offenses  which  has 
been  stigmatized  for  untold  generations  as  "  talebear- 
ing," for  these  systems  usually  involve  the  organization 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  107 

of  a  pupil  court  before  which  offenders  are  tried  and 
before  which  the  "  testimony  "  is  given.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  condition,  however,  the  system  has  a  certain 
fundamental  defect :  it  is  artificial,  —  a  more  or  less 
literal  imitation  of  the  cumbrous  and  far  from  perfect 
system  which  has  gradually  developed  in  adult  society ; 
it  has  not  evolved  naturally  in  a  juvenile  society  to  meet 
the  needs  of  that  society.  The  boy  who  believes  that 
telling  on  his  mates  is  contemptible  may  grow  up  to  be 
an  "  undesirable  citizen  "  because  of  his  later  unwilling- 
ness to  report  offenses  in  adult  society.  But  the  boy 
who  is  taught  that  espionage  is  a  virtue  (and  he  will 
not  distinguish  very  clearly  between  "  talebearing  " 
and  "  giving  testimony  ")  may  also  develop  into,  a  type 
of  citizen  that  is  to  the  minds  of  some  equally  undesir- 
able, —  the  officious  meddler  and  the  inveterate  scandal- 
monger. Adult  society  has  sanctioned  the  giving  of 
testimony  against  offenders,  but  it  has  hedged  it  about 
by  elaborate  safeguards,  and  has  recognized  that  it  is  a 
necessity  reserved  for  serious  cases  which  imperil  social 
welfare.  It  is  indeed  a  necessity  born  of  the  conditions 
of  social  survival;  it  is  a  virtue  because  of  its  social 
necessity,  not  a  necessity  because  of  its  inherent  virtue. 
Until  it  is  demonstrated  that  the  school  group  needs 
this  kind  of  a  virtue  for  its  survival,  it  may  be  safely 
concluded  that  the  deeply  seated  prejudice  against  tale- 
bearing and  irresponsible  espionage  has  a  worth  and  a 
meaning  that  merit  respectful  consideration  and  investi- 
gation before  the  prejudice  is  abandoned. 


108  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

An  interesting  questionnaire  investigation  of  the  attitude 
of  men  and  women  toward  the  prejudice  against  talebearing 
was  made  by  H.  E.  Hall  and  reported  in  The  Outlook.1  A 
hypothetical  situation  was  described.  Two  boys  were  play- 
ing at  school.  "A"  told  "B"  that  he  would  throw  a  snow- 
ball through  a  school  window.  "B"  did  not  reply.  "A" 
carried  out  his  promise  and  "B"  witnessed  the  deed.  The 
teacher  asked  each  boy  singly  if  he  knew  who  broke  the 
window,  and  if  he  did,  to  name  the  culprit.  Mr.  Hall  then 
raised  the  following  questions:  (i)  What  should  "B"  say 
when  asked  if  he  knew  who  broke  the  window?  (2)  What 
should  he  say  when  asked  to  name  the  culprit  ?  (3)  Should 
the  teacher  have  asked  the  questions?  (4)  Should  the 
teacher  have  the  same  right  as  a  court  in  compelling  testi- 
mony? (5)  Should  children  in  general  be  taught  in  the 
schools  that  it  is  their  duty  to  tell  the  truth  about  wrong- 
doing when  questioned  by  one  in  authority? 

The  answers  received  from  teachers,  from  men  and  women 
in  other  walks  of  life,  and  from  school  children  themselves 
indicate  a  bewildering  variety  of  conviction  and  opinion. 
The  various  replies  as  published  in  The  Outlook  would  make 
—  allowing  for  some  little  "coloring"  which  would  be  un- 
consciously introduced  to  make  the  anecdotes  as  interesting 
as  possible  —  an  excellent  "source  book"  for  the  study  of 
school  ethics.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  in  the  present  connec- 
tion that  one  will  find  in  the  replies  published,  respectable 
and  numerous  company,  upon  whichever  side  of  the  con- 
troversy he  desires  to  align  himself. 

While  occasions  may  arise  when  it  will  be  necessary 
to  compel  an  individual  to  give  information  regarding 

1  "Who  Broke  the  Window?"  The  Outlook,  Jan.  n,  1913,  pp.  75  ff., 
and  subsequent  issues. 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  109 

the  misdeeds  of  another,  steps  should  first  be  taken  to 
obtain  the  information  from  the  culprit  himself.  One 
teacher  gives  the  following  suggestions :  Where  a  fault 
cannot  be  definitely  located  at  the  outset,  and  where  it 
is  particularly  inimical  to  the  welfare  of  the  school,  he 
calls  attention,  day  after  day,  very  briefly  to  the  mis- 
demeanor, stating  that  he  expects  the  guilty  individual 
to  come  to  him  in  private,  tell  him  all  about  it,  and 
make  the  proper  reparation.  This  continual  impres- 
sion, he  tells  us,  invariably  brings  about  the  desired 
result.  Sooner  or  later,  —  and  usually  before  the  direc- 
tion has  been  repeated  many  times,  —  the  offender 
comes  forth  and  the  matter  is  settled.  It  is  very  likely 
that,  where  others  know  about  the  matter,  a  very  salu- 
tary influence  will  be  exerted  upon  the  individual  chiefly 
concerned  to  make  the  confession.  This,  at  any  rate, 
is  the  explanation  that  the  teacher  in  question  offers 
for  the  unvarying  success  which  he  has  met  in  applying 
this  method.  Every  one  who  is  involved  is  restive  and 
unhappy  until  the  matter  is  cleared  up,  —  provided  one 
does  not  permit  it  to  be  forgotten.  There  is  good  psy- 
chology in  the  suggestion. 

Pupil-Government  Organizations  may  serve  Tem- 
porary Purposes.  —  The  employment  of  the  self-govern- 
ment plan  as  a  temporary  device  for  initiating  something 
akin  to  group  responsibility  may,  however,  be  clearly 
justified  in  its  results.  Here  the  various  activities  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  a  "  game  "  by  means  of  which  the 
machinery  of  civil  government  may  be  made  intelli- 


IIO  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

gible  to  the  pupils.  The  following  account  illustrates  the 
way  in  which  the  plan  may  work  for  a  brief  period  at 
least : 

"The  class  contained  a  small  proportion  of  pupils  who 
lacked  a  'sense'  of  personal  responsibility,  and  two  pupils 
who  were  real  'problems.'  We  decided  to  organize  a  legis- 
lative body.  This  was  done  in  due  form.  The  legislature 
then  elected  a  sergeant-at-arms  who,  in  turn,  appointed 
deputies.  The  watchword  of  the  class  became  'Self-Con- 
trol'; the  motto,  'He  who  can  govern  himself  can  govern 
a  nation.'  The  sergeant-at-arms  and  his  deputies  per- 
formed their  duties  hi  a  dignified  and  courteous  manner. 
There  was  no  suggestion  of  the  'monitor'  attitude. 

"Each  day  the  sergeant  would  appoint  some  member  to 
bring  to  the  class  the  following  morning  some  incident  in 
which  self-control  played  an  important  part.  This  incident 
was  related  as  part  of  the  morning  exercises.  During  the 
day  the  sergeant-at-arms  and  his  deputies  had  all  matters 
pertaining  to  discipline  and  order  in  charge.  These  duties 
involved  certain  routine  activities  concerning  the  care  of  the 
room,  the  bookshelves,  blackboards,  and  plants.  In  cases 
of  'discipline'  the  sergeant  or  a  deputy  would  courteously 
admonish  or  warn  an  offender.  If  the  offense  was  con- 
tinued, a  note  was  made  of  the  error. 

"On  Friday  evening  the  impeachment  committee  met. 
The  defendant  with  his  witnesses  and  attorney  appeared 
before  the  judge  and  the  jury.  Testimony  was  given  and 
arguments  were  advanced.  The  jury  then  retired  and  dis- 
cussed the  evidence.  The  sentence,  imposed  by  the  judge 
was  always  taken  most  seriously  by  the  culprit  and  by  his 
fellows. 

"The  plan  worked  so  well  that  it  was  continued  through 
the  term." 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  III 

It  should  be  very  clear  to  one  at  all  familiar  with 
children  that  a  device  of  this  type  may  work  admirably 
for  a  brief  period,  but  that  extreme  caution  should  be 
exercised  in  continuing  beyond  the  point  where  the 
pupils  fail  to  take  it  seriously.  This  point  will  almost 
certainly  be  reached  sooner  or  later,  and  thereafter  the 
order  of  the  school  is  likely  to  be  seriously  imperiled  by 
its  operation. 

Segregating  Group  Responsibility  by  conferring  Au- 
thority on  Older  Pupils :  the  English  System.  —  One 
way  in  which  to  escape  the  pitfalls  of  the  schemes  of 
pupil  self-government  that  have  been  experimented  with 
in  American  schools  is  illustrated  by  the  system  developed 
by  Thomas  Arnold  at  Rugby  and  imitated  very  success- 
fully by  other  of  the  English  boarding  schools  for  boys 
—  and  lately,  indeed,  introduced  in  a  modified  form  into 
day  schools  by  Professor  J.  J.  Findlay,  of  Manchester.1 
This  system,  instead  of  being  a  blind  imitation  of  the 
forms  of  adult  government,  is  both  a  natural  evolution 
from  the  needs  and  nature  of  school  life  and  a  much 
more  adequate  representation  of  the  actual  adult  situa- 
tion than  is  the  "  pupil-city  "  organization.  In  essence 
it  selects  the  older  pupils  who  have  proved  their  worth, 
and  makes  them  responsible  for  the  younger  pupils. 
Adults  and  children  look  upon  espionage  quite  differently 
when  it  is  practiced  by  one  to  whom  authority  has  been 
duly  delegated  than  when  it  emanates  from  one's  own 
peers ;  and  the  English  system  has  emphasized  this 

1  School  Review,  vol.  xv,  pp.  744  ff . ;  vol.  xvi,  pp.  601  ff. 


112  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

vital  difference.  Both  responsibility  and  authority  are 
natural  attributes  of  maturity  and  demonstrated  ability ; 
they  do  not  sit  well  on  young  shoulders;  and  youth, 
of  course,  is  a  relative  matter ;  to  the  child  of  ten,  his 
fellow  of  fifteen  is  well  fitted  with  years. 

The  English  system,  however,  could  hardly  be  applied 
to  American  conditions  except  under  wide  modifications. 
The  grouping  together  of  pupils  of  the  same  age  (the 
same  mental  age,  at  any  rate)  is  much  more  strongly 
characteristic  of  American  than  of  English  schools,  and 
the  advantage  that  might  accrue  to  placing  responsi- 
bility in  the  hands  of  older  pupils  is  largely  unavailable. 
There  are,  perhaps,  some  suggestions  for  experimenta- 
tion in  graded  elementary  schools  and  in  high  schools. 
It  may  be  that  the  appointment  of  "prefects"  from  the 
upper  classes,  giving  them  some  measure  of  authority 
over  the  control  of  pupils  in  the  school  yard,  might  issue 
in  commendable  results  in  the  development  of  a  sense  of 
responsibility  upon  the  part  of  the  older  pupils,  and  in 
stimulating  the  younger  pupils  to  strive  for  similar  rec- 
ognition when  their  turn  should  come. 

The  Development  of  the  "  Fashion  "  of  Good  Order 
does  away  with  the  Necessity  for  Formal  Systems  of 
Self-Government.  —  The  answer  to  the  question,  Can 
group  responsibility  be  developed  without  a  system  of 
mutual  espionage  ?  is  best  found  in  concrete  cases  — 
and  these  cases  can  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely 
in  the  better  American  school  systems.  In  these  schools, 
there  is  much  self-government,  but  it  is  unencumbered 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  113 

by  forms  and  institutions.  It  is  a  type  of  self-govern- 
ment adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  community.  There 
are  no  courts  through  which  to  express  social  disap- 
proval. There  is  no  need  for  courts.  There  are  no 
officers  in  addition  to  the  regular  school  authorities,  and 
the  control  of  these  officials  is  little  in  evidence.  There 
is  social  disapproval,  and  there  is  coercion  by  the  social 
group,  but  it  works  in  silent  and  half -conscious  ways,  pre- 
cisely as  social  disapproval  works  in  adult  communities. 

Into  a  high  school  of  this  type  an  adolescent  boy  once 
came  —  "  cocky,"  conceited,  burning  to  "  show  off." 
At  his  first  recitation,  he  ventured  an  impudent  sally, 
and  looked  about  him  for  the  applause  that  his  former 
experiences  in  another  type  of  school  had  led  him  to 
expect.  The  class  took  no  apparent  notice  of  his  im- 
pudent remark.  The  teacher  said  nothing  to  him,  but 
simply  passed  on  to  another  pupil  in  recitation.  It 
took  this  boy  two  days  to  learn  that  a  type  of  school 
spirit  with  which  he  was  entirely  unfamiliar  governed 
that  school.  It  took  him  six  months  to  undo  among 
his  fellows  the  disastrous  results  of  those  first  two  days. 
There  was  no  outward  coercion.  It  was  the  silent, 
resistless  force  of  social  opinion  telling  him  in  unmistak- 
able terms  that  he  had  made  a  fool  of  himself.  It  is 
a  harsh  corrective,  —  the  rod  would  sometimes  be  far 
easier  to  bear.  But  it  is  effective  —  and  it  is  something 
more :  it  is  the  normal  way  in  which  adult  society  exerts 
its  coercive  force  over  its  component  members. 

The  social  sanctions  in  this  particular  school  had  been 


114  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

turned  in  the  direction  of  order  and  industry.  The  self- 
government  was  as  complete  as  it  can  ever  profitably  be 
in  an  immature  social  group.  The  lessons  that  emanated 
from  a  school  life  of  this  type  are  lessons  that  will 
"  function  "  later. 

The  Role  of  Pupil  Organizations  in  School  Govern- 
ment. —  There  are,  however,  certain  types  of  organiza- 
tion, not  concerned  with  the  government  of  the  school 
as  a  whole,  that  may  do  a  great  deal  to  help  develop 
this  group  responsibility.  Clubs  and  societies  formed 
for  social,  literary,  athletic,  or  dramatic  purposes,  and 
enrolling  in  the  aggregate  practically  the  entire  student 
body,  form  a  most  fruitful  field  for  nurturing  the  group 
consciousness  and  building  up  an  effective  esprit  de  corps. 
It  is  clear  that  the  expressions  of  the  social  impulses  in 
the  formation  of  the  organizations  may  work  for  evil  as 
easily  as  for  good,  and  their  existence  may  mean  the  de- 
velopment of  the  very  worst  types  of  social  sanctions. 
The  history  of  the  high  school  fraternity  sufficiently 
demonstrates  that  something  more  than  a  mere  provi- 
sion for  the  expression  of  social  impulses  is  needed. 
There  must  be  on  the  part  of  the  school  authorities  a 
measure  of  supervision,  most  tactfully  administered,  if 
the  valuable  outcomes  of  the  school's  social  life  are  to 
be  realized.  Once  started  in  the  right  direction,  the  pupil 
organizations  will  fulfill  an  important  function  in  setting 
and  maintaining  worthy  standards  of  conduct ;  started 
in  the  wrong  way,  they  may  be  hotbeds  of  trouble,  of 
disaffection,  and  even  of  immorality  and  vice. 


STIMULATING   GROUP   RESPONSIBILITY  115 

How  to  establish  the  right  precedent  in  this  matter, 
and  particularly  how  to  reorganize  a  social  situation 
that  has  become  demoralized  are  themes  that  have  been 
vigorously  discussed  by  high  school  workers.  The  fol- 
lowing suggestions  are  taken  from  a  recent  treatment  of 
the  problem : l 

"...  Every  society  that  receives  recognition  should 
have  its  'advisory'  board.  The  word  'advisory'  is  used 
rather  than  '  control '  or  any  other  word,  because  it  is  intended 
that  the  board  shall  act  in  just  that  capacity.  The  board 
should  consist  of  two  teachers  who  are  chosen  by  the  pupils 
and  approved  by  the  principal,  and  of  two  or  more  students, 
including  the  president  and  secretary  —  according  to  the 
size  of  the  organization,  —  and  also  the  principal  as  an  ex 
officio  member.  The  teachers  on  the  board  are  not  to  act 
as  censors,  but  as  leaders  who  are  interested  in  the  work  of 
the  society,  who  will  attend  its  meetings,  and  who,  by  their 
wisdom  and  experience,  will  lead  the  organization  success- 
fully in  its  undertakings.  In  this  way  there  can  be  no  pos- 
sible clash  between  students  and  faculty,  and  harmonious 
cooperation  will  be  the  result." 

Mr.  Davis  further  recommends  that  the  teachers  who 
serve  on  these  various  advisory  boards  unite,  under  the 
chairmanship  of  the  principal,  as  an  "advisory  council" 
charged  with  the  general  administration  of  all  student  social 
affairs.  The  pupils  who  serve  on  the  advisory  boards,  with 
certain  other  pupils  elected  at  large,  may  profitably  be  or- 
ganized into  a  student  council  to  cooperate  with  the  advisory 
council  of  teachers. 

1  Jesse  B.  Davis,  "The  Administration  of  the  Social  Activities  of 
High  School  Pupils,"  in  The  Modern  High  School  (edited  by  C.  H. 
Johnston),  New  York,  1914,  pp.  410  ff. 


Il6  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

These  recommendations  apply  chiefly  to  the  large 
and  medium-sized  high  schools  and  to  large  grammar 
schools  organized  on  the  departmental  plan.  There  is 
no  reason,  however,  why,  in  smaller  high  schools  and  even 
in  upper-grade  classrooms,  the  social  propensities  of 
the  pupil  body  may  not  be  profitably  directed  through 
the  organization  of  literary,  social,  and  athletic  clubs. 
The  "  machinery  "  here  should  be  restricted  to  the  few 
forms  and  provisions  that  are  absolutely  essential 
to  the  administration  of  social  affairs  in  the  interests 
of  a  wholesome  school  spirit.  A  modified  form  of  Mr. 
Davis's  plan  might  well  be  tried  even  in  these  small 
schools,  —  for  the  theory  back  of  this  proposal  seems  to 
be  entirely  consistent  with  the  fundamental  principle 
that  we  have  repeatedly  emphasized,  —  namely,  the 
establishment  of  relationships  of  sympathetic  coopera- 
tion between  the  teacher  and  pupil  body  to  the  end 
that  the  teacher  while  still  preserving  his  authority  and 
recognizing  his  responsibility,  will  be  looked  upon  by 
the  pupils  as  a  guide  and  counselor  rather  than  as  a  task- 
master. And  this,  after  all,  is  the  important  relation- 
ship to  be  preserved  in  all  of  the  efforts  that  are  made 
to  utilize  the  social  instincts  and  impulses  of  the  pupils 
themselves  in  establishing  the  "  fashion  "  of  order  and 
industry  throughout  the  school. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

i.  Is  it  true  in  your  own  experience  that  boys  and  girls 
in  school  will  strive  for  the  approval  and  admiration  of  their 


STIMULATING    GROUP    RESPONSIBILITY  117 

fellows  more  frequently  and  more  whole-heartedly  than  for 
the  approval  of  their  teachers?  In  any  case,  which  would 
be  the  more  desirable  motive  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
best  development  of  the  child? 

2.  Name  some  of  the  steps  that  you  would  take  to  make 
yourself  in  the  eyes  of  your  pupils  a  counselor,  leader,  and 
guide  rather  than  a  master  or  a  martinet.    In  how  far  would 
you  strive  to  retain  the  prerogatives  of  the  master? 

3.  What  are  some  of  the  helpful  analogies  between  the 
efficient  teacher  and  the  efficient  parent;   between  the  effi- 
cient teacher  and  the  efficient  employer  of  men  in  industry ; 
between  the  efficient  teacher  and  the  efficient  military  com- 
mander?   Name  in  each  case  some  of  the  points  at  which 
the  analogy  must  be  given  up. 

4.  Would  you  agree  with  the  statement  that  measures 
which  the  pupil  interprets  as  designed  to  purchase  order 
with  favors  are  to  be  condemned?    Are  there  any  excep- 
tions to  this  principle? 

5.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  principle,  "No 
honesty,  no  trust,"  and  the  apparently  converse  principle, 
"No  trust,  no  honesty"?    Suppose  the  latter  principle  to 
be  generally  accepted,  what  results  can  you  conceive  to  be 
inevitable  ? 

6.  What  are  the  advantages  and  dangers  of  placing  the 
responsibility  for  the  conduct  of  individual  pupils  upon  the 
class  as  a  whole?    At  what  points  is  the  analogy  with  adult 
self-government  justified  ?    At  what  points  does  this  analogy 
fail? 

7.  Cite  instances  among  the  nations  of  the  world  where 
the  mere  form  of  self-government  does  not  insure  real  self- 
government.    As  you  understand  such  nations,  where  does 
the  chief  difficulty  seem  to  lie? 

8.  Can  you  furnish  instances,  similar  to  that  given  in  the 
text,  which  illustrate  offenses  for  which  the  group  rather 


Il8  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

than  any  single  individual  must  be  held  primarily  respon- 
sible? In  your  opinion,  if  the  individual  responsibility  can- 
not be  located,  is  it  legitimate  to  inflict  summary  punishment 
upon  one  or  more  members  of  the  group  as  reparation  for 
the  group  offense?  If  this  is  ever  justified,  under  what 
conditions  and  why  ?  Are  there  analogies  in  civil  or  military 
government?  (For  example,  was  the  alleged  summary 
punishment  of  individual  Belgian  civilians  by  the  German 
army  of  invasion  an  analogous  case?) 

9.  Why  has  "talebearing"  or  "tattling"  come  to  have 
so  unsavory  a  name?  Is  its  bad  repute  justified?  What  is 
your  own  immediate  reaction  toward  a  "tattler"?  Under 
what  conditions,  if  any,  would  you  justify  talebearing? 

10.  What  are  some  of  the  dangers  of  encouraging  school 
children  to  report  the  faults  and  misdemeanors  of  their 
fellows?     Can  you  frame  a  principle  that  will  be  a  service- 
able guide  to  the  teacher  in  discouraging  this  practice? 

11.  How  would  you  answer  the  questions  stated  on  p. 
108,  regarding  the  broken  window? 

12.  What  are  the  important  differences  between  a  system 
of  "pupil  self-government"  as  this  term  is  ordinarily  under- 
stood and  the  plan  of  delegating  responsibility  to  the  older 
pupils  ?    Are  there  any  analogies  between  the  latter  practice 
and  the  actual  workings  of  effective  self-government  in  an 
adult  society  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL  :  (E)  THE  TONIC 
INFLUENCE  OF  A  REGIMEN  OF  WORK 

THE  various  steps  that  may  be  taken  to  establish  a 
"  fashion  "  of  order  and  industry  in  an  unruly  school 
would  be  incomplete  without  a  reference  to  the  tonic 
effect  of  a  systematic  "  regimen  of  work."  When  we  say 
that  the  school  should  develop  in  its  pupils  a  "  general 
habit  of  work,"  we  are  voicing  a  truism  with  which  no 
one  will  disagree,  but  which  offers  the  teacher  no  sugges- 
tion for  actually  establishing  this  desirable  habit.  Habits 
have  an  irritating  tendency  to  be  specific  rather  than 
general ;  they  must  be  built  up  as  responses  to  particu- 
lar situations.  The  specific  habit  that  the  pupils  of  ah 
unruly  school  need  to  establish  is  the  habit  of  settling  into 
the  attitude  of  work  and  industry  at  a  certain  definite  time 
and  of  maintaining  this  attitude  during  a  certain  definite 
period.  Work  time  must  be  distinctly  understood  as 
a  time  when  nothing  but  work  in  the  sense  of  serious  and 
aggressive  effort  will  be  tolerated. 

The  Disciplinary  Effect  of  a  Regimen  of  Work.  - 
The  child  or  youth  is  to  be  envied  whose  lot  is  cast  in 
a  well-regulated  and  well-disciplined  school,  where  this 
regimen   has   been    thoroughly    established.     There   is 

119 


120  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

a  most  effective  inspiration  in  the  community  of  active, 
aggressive  concentration  which  such  a  school  typifies. 
It  is  distinctly  a  civilizing  agency,  making  for  systematic 
growth  and  development,  and  teaching  the  fundamental 
lessons  of  self-control  and  self-discipline  through  ac- 
quainting the  child  with  the  value  of  systematic  effort, 
and  through  accustoming  him  to  the  necessity  for  holding 
in  leash  momentary  desire  and  impulse.  It  is  one  of  the 
important  steps  to  be  taken  in  "  making  the  work  the 
master." 

The  nine-o'clock  bell  strikes.  The  pupils  who  have  been 
talking  and  playing  together,  freely  and  spontaneously, 
instantly  assume  another  attitude.  The  shouting  and  the 
laughter  —  most  excellent  in  their  place  —  cease.  The  pu- 
pils pass  quietly  to  their  rooms.  A  few  moments  devoted 
to  opening  exercises  and  the  work  of  the  day  is  begun  cheer- 
fully and  vigorously.  Systematically,  step  by  step,  the  prob- 
lems are  solved,  the  projects  pushed  to  completion,  the  les- 
sons mastered.  An  hour  and  a  half  of  buzzing  industry 
passes.  Then  the  bell  rings  and  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes 
the  older  spirit  of  freedom  and  play  reigns  supreme.  Then 
back  again  to  the  work. 

One  who  participates  in  this  type  of  daily  program,  work- 
ing with  competent,  sympathetic  teachers  who  are  them- 
selves inspired  by  the  quiet,  orderly,  pervasive  atmosphere 
of  effort  and  accomplishment,  who  will  brook  neither  shirk- 
ing nor  shamming,  and  yet  who  know  how  to  make  the  work 
itself  compel  the  effort,  can  hardly  fail  to  acquire  the  all- 
important  attitude  implied  in  the  phrase  "general  habit  of 
work."  We  are  tempted  to  say  that  eight  or  twelve  years 
of  this  regimen  would,  almost  independently  of  the  other 


THE    REGIMEN    OF    WORK  121 

lessons  learned  in  school,  fit  the  pupil  for  the  important 
duties  of  life.  Certainly  it  would  contribute  an  indispens- 
able element  toward  this  end. 

Establishing  the  Regimen.  —  But  how  to  establish 
this  specific  habit  in  all  of  the  pupils  of  an  unruly  school 
is  quite  another  matter ;  for,  by  hypothesis,  this  is  the 
type  of  program  that  is  most  unfashionable  here. 

The  first  suggestion  to  the  teacher  is  to  have  a  good 
working  "  time-table  "  and  carry  it  through  to  the  letter. 
There  is  something  tonic  in  the  clean-cutness  of  time 
edges;  in  opening  on  the  minute  and  closing  on  the 
minute.  There  is  something  bracing  in  the  brisk  and 
alert  beginning,  in  a  clear  and  decisive  close ;  and  if  a 
"  brisk  "  carrying  through  of  the  program  is  added,  the 
formula  is  complete.  Through  the  power  of  suggestion, 
mental  alertness  spreads  like  a  contagion.  And  if  this 
atmosphere  can  be  created  at  the  outset,  the  chances 
are  that  the  desirable  habit  will  be  formed  with  a 
minimum  of  trouble.  There  are  few  precepts  of  school 
management  more  significant  than  that  which  empha- 
sizes the  importance  of  the  right  start.1 

Nervous  Tension  must  be  Avoided.  —  But  the  diffi- 
culty lies  not  so  much  in  starting  vigorously  as  in  per- 
sisting vigorously  and  in  closing  vigorously.  And  the 
kind  of  vigor  that  means  undue  nervous  strain  and  ten- 
sion is  certain  to  defeat  its  own  purpose  because  it  uses 
up  all  of  one's  energies  at  the  outset  and  leaves  one  help- 
less at  the  equally  critical  close.  It  has  furthermore 

1  Cf.  the  writer's  Classroom  Management,  New  York,  1907.  ch.  ii. 


122  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  wrong  kind  of  suggestive  influence  upon  the  pupils. 
We  have  seen  teachers  gather  themselves  together  as 
for  a  fray ;  bustling  about  like  busy  little  switch  engines 
in  the  freight  yards ;  making  much  rasping  and  mechanical 
noise.  But  what  is  needed  is  not  so  much  the  bustle 
and  confusion  of  the  freight  yards  as  the  sustained 
efficiency  of  the  long  straightaway  run ;  steadily  onward 
across  the  fields  and  meadows  and  through  the  woods ; 
taking  the  grades  slowly  but  easily ;  keeping  plenty  of 
reserve  power  for  the  steeper  climbs ;  coasting  down  the 
slopes ;  and  pulling  in  "  on  the  dot  "  at  the  terminal. 
Huxley,  coming  up  New  York  harbor,  caught  the  spirit 
of  the  tugboat,  and  exclaimed  enthusiastically  that  he 
would  rather  be  a  tugboat  than  any  other  thing  not 
human.  There  is  a  certain  type  of  inspiration  in  a  tug- 
boat and  in  a  switch  engine.  But  it  is  a  nervous,  jerky 
inspiration;  and  what  we  need  in  school  manage- 
ment is  the  sustained  and  restrained  efficiency  that 
suggests  reserve  strength  quite  beyond  the  needs  of 
the  present  moment.  It  is  this  type  of  "  vigor  "  that 
should  be  joined  with  the  "  business  man's  "  virtues  of 
promptness,  alertness,  and  concentration  in  attempting 
to  establish  a  wholesome  regimen  of  work  in  the  unruly 
school. 

The  Dirigibility  of  Enthusiasm.  —  All  of  this  involves, 
it  may  be  objected,  an  enthusiasm  for  the  work  of  teach- 
ing that  cannot  be  made  "  out  of  the  whole  cloth." 
To  be  vigorous  and  alert  from  nine  until  four ;  to  keep 
up  the  flames  of  inspiration  when  every  school  condition 


THE    REGIMEN    OF    WORK  123 

favors  their  extinction ;  to  engender  enthusiasm  over 
subject  matter  that  one  repeats  to  two  or  three  differ- 
ent classes  every  year,  or  (in  the  high  school)  even 
to  four  or  five  different  sections  every  day,  —  this 
seems  to  call  for  a  miracle  quite  beyond  human  achieve- 
ment. 

If  one  were  to  acquiesce  in  the  doctrine  of  interest 
that  is  now  current,  one  would  agree  that  enthusiasm 
under  these  conditions  is  impossible;  for  this  doctrine 
seems  to  imply  that  interest  is  always  determined  by 
the  activity  and  never  by  the  agent  himself,  —  that 
unless  the  task  attracts  in  itself,  interest  and  enthusiasm 
cannot  be  engendered.  This  theory  is  partly  true  of  the 
child  and  of  the  weak,  undisciplined  adult ;  and  with 
individuals  of  this  type,  little  dependence  can  be  placed 
upon  the  power  to  engender  enthusiasm  over  one's  work 
whether  the  work  is  intrinsically  attractive  or  not. 
But  for  the  tyro  in  teaching  one  of  the  first  lessons  to 
learn  is  that  enthusiasms  are  dirigible;  in  some  measure 
they  can  be  directed  at  will.  In  just  what  measure  will 
vary  with  individuals,  but  the  power  to  become  interested 
in  one's  work  may  be  taken  as  one  of  the  important 
characteristics  of  the  competent  worker.1  Certainly 
the  teacher  who  hopes  to  succeed  must  learn  how  to 
interest  himself  in  each  lesson  that  he  teaches.  Professor 
Phelps 2  states  the  case  in  words  that  ring  true : 

1  Cf .  the  discussion  of  the  relation  of  discipline  to  the  doctrine  of 
interest,  ch.  xiv. 

2  W.  L.  Phelps,  Teaching  in  School  and  College,  New  York,  1912, 
p.  16. 


124  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

"Constant  and  tremendous  enthusiasm  for  the  subject 
taught  is  essential.  When  one  is  actually  teaching  it,  this 
thing,  whatever  it  may  be,  should  seem  to  be  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  time  or  eternity.  The  late  President  Har- 
per, who  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  teachers  I  have  ever 
known,  told  me  that  he  had  taught  the  first  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  I  have  forgotten  how  many  thousand 
times.  I  remarked  that  he  always  seemed  enthusiastic. 
He  said :  '  Sometimes  I  feel  wildly  enthusiastic ;  at  other 
times  I  have  no  enthusiasm  at  all.  When  I  have  no  enthu- 
siasm, then  I  create  it.'  It  is  absurd  that  a  teacher  should 
allow  a  headache  or  a  sleepless  night  to  affect  his  teaching. 
If  his  health  will  permit  him  to  enter  the  classroom,  he  must 
teach  with  zeal  and  vigor." 

Enemies  of  Enthusiasm.  —  A  phase  of  the  art  of  teach- 
ing so  important  as  this  merits  the  most  careful  considera- 
tion from  those  who  are  charged  with  the  administration 
of  schools.  An  important  part  of  the  duty  of  a  super- 
intendent or  principal  in  operating  his  schools  with 
maximal  efficiency  is  to  insure  those  conditions  that  will 
make  it  possible  for  every  teacher  to  approach  his  or  her 
task  with  maximal  enthusiasm  and  interest.  The  ideal 
administrator  relieves  those  who  do  the  actual  teaching 
just  as  far  as  possible  from  tasks  and  worries  that  will 
distract  them  from  their  class  work.  He  reduces  their 
clerical  labors  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum ;  delegates 
the  duties  of  general  administration  and  control  to 
teachers  who  are  relieved  of  teaching  duties  in  propor- 
tion; and  even  minimizes  the  importance  of  his  own 
office  and  of  "  executive  work  "  in  general  in  order  that 


THE    REGIMEN    OF    WORK  12$ 

both  teachers  and  pupils  may  look  upon  the  work  of  the 
classroom  as  the  all-important  business  for  which  the 
school  exists.  But  unhappily  there  are  many  supervisors 
and  administrators  who  do  not  take  this  broad  and  stim- 
ulating view  of  their  function.  They  load  down  their 
teachers  with  extra-scholastic  duties  and  worries;  they 
magnify  the  importance  of  clerical,  administrative,  and 
executive  functions ;  they  break  into  the  regular  routine 
for  trivial  reasons,  and  so  undo  much  that  the  teacher 
has  accomplished  toward  establishing  a  wholesome 
regimen  of  work ;  they  cater  to  the  good  will  of  the  pupil- 
body  and  of  laymen  by  placing  athletics,  dramatics, 
exhibitions,  and  other  "  show  "  activities  on  a  higher 
plane  than  systematic  scholastic  effort.  Under  condi- 
tions of  this  sort,  the  handicap  of  the  teacher  in  keeping 
up  an  inspiring  enthusiasm  for  his  own  work  is  greatly 
increased. 

Again,  the  short-sighted  criticisms  of  school  work  in- 
tensify the  difficulty  of  maintaining  enthusiasm  by 
querulously  calling  into  question  or  contemptuously 
"  pooh-poohing "  the  value  of  certain  subjects  that 
teachers  are  employed  to  teach.  This  condition  is  in- 
evitable during  a  transitional  period  such  as  the  pres- 
ent, when  criticism  is  the  "  fashion  "  and  when  every 
traditional  subject  is  under  the  limelight  of  condem- 
nation. It  is  rather  difficult  to  engender  enthusiasm 
over  a  subject  that  is  branded  from  the  housetops 
as  a  waste  of  time,  or  over  processes  once  thought  to 
be  educational  in  their  effect  that  are  now  believed  by 


126  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

certain  influential  reformers  to  be  worthless.  There 
will  probably  be  no  relief  from  this  handicap  until 
educators  have  reached  an  agreement  as  to  the  worth- 
lessness  or  value  of  disputed  subjects  and  then  con- 
vince the  public  that  their  conclusions  are  sound.  But 
there  should  be  some  consolation  for  the  teachers  who 
must  teach  subjects  now  "  unpopular  "  in  the  fact  that 
the  last  word  has  not  yet  been  said,  and  that,  in  all 
likelihood,  the  charges  that  are  made  are  overdrawn  for 
polemical  purposes. 

Nor  are  the  teachers  of  the  newer  subjects  relieved 
from  their  share  of  the  irritation.  Their  efforts  must 
undergo  a  certain  measure  of  distrust  from  their  col- 
leagues and  they,  too,  must  live  through  the  critical  period 
of  establishing  their  subjects  upon  a  firm  basis.  Perhaps 
their  condition  is  no  better,  from  the  point  of  view  of  this 
handicap  of  distrust,  than  that  of  their  colleagues  in  the 
older  disciplines. 

Finally,  there  are  the  teachers  who  are  forced  through 
necessity  to  teach  subjects  for  which  they  have  neither 
inherent  liking  nor  inherent  ability.  This  condition  is 
often  found  in  the  elementary  school  where  each  class- 
room teacher  is  commonly  required  to  teach  every 
subject  in  the  program.  Indeed  the  obvious  difficulty 
of  engendering  enthusiasm  for  each  and  every  topic  has 
been  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  for  introducing  the 
departmental  system  of  instruction  and  differentiated 
curriculums  into  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades. 

Even  under  these  unfortunate  handicaps,  however,  the 


THE    REGIMEN    OF    WORK  127 

engendering  of  enthusiasm  is  not  an  impossible  task  as 
the  experience  of  many  teachers  abundantly  demonstrates. 
Some,  indeed,  draw  inspiration  from  neglect,  oppression, 
and  opposition,  and  work  all  the  more  enthusiastically 
because  the  value  of  their  work  is  questioned  or  its 
relative  importance  belittled.  Others  succeed  in  closing 
their  minds  to  irritating  distractions.  Still  others  as- 
siduously cultivate  the  attitude  of  the  ancient  hero  who 
was  given  the  office  of  public  scavenger ;  striving,  if  their 
work  cannot  be  an  honor  to  them,  to  be  an  honor  to 
their  work.  Some  men  may  characterize  this  conscious 
guidance  of -enthusiasm  as  a  species  of  self-deception; 
but,  recognizing  its  necessity  and  its  efficacy  in  an  imper- 
fect world,  it  would  be  far  more  kindly  to  laud  it  as  a 
type  of  self -conquest.  To  do  work  that  one  believes  to  be 
unimportant  or  valueless  merely  for  the  sake  of  getting  a 
living  is  to  sell  one's  manhood  or  womanhood  for  a  mess 
of  pottage ;  to  do  the  work  that  one  must  do  just  as  well 
as  it  can  be  done  and  with  all  the  enthusiasm  that  one 
can  summon  to  the  effort  may  be  making  a  virtue  of 
necessity,  but  it  is  also  taking  the  first  step  toward  making 
the  work  worthy  and  useful.  If  people  are  willing  to  pay 
in  the  coin  of  the  realm  for  having  the  work  done,  the 
worker  may  rest  assured  that  it  meets  some  need,  and  if, 
under  these  conditions,  he  sets  his  hand  to  the  task,  a 
moral  responsibility  is  his  to  carry  it  through  in  the  best 
possible  manner. 

Other  enemies  of  enthusiasm  lurk  in  the  individual 
•worries  and  cares  of  the  teacher;   in  the  ill  health  and 


128  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

reduced  vitality  that  come  from  overwork,  from  insuffi- 
cient sleep,  and  from  insufficient  exercise.  Still  others 
are  to  be  found  in  unsympathetic  supervision  which  mixes 
querulous  faultfinding  with  the  minutest  portions  of 
praise  and  commendation.  Every  worker  needs  and 
profits  infinitely  by  a  recognition  of  his  efficiency  if  he  is 
efficient;  the  normal  individual  craves  this  reward  far 
more  keenly  than  he  craves  material  rewards.  An 
important  function  of  the  administrator  is  to  develop 
between  himself  and  his  teachers  the  same  attitude  of 
sympathetic  cooperation  that  we  have  described  as 
characterizing  the  ideal  relation  of  teacher  and  pupil. 
Just  as  surely  as  the  superintendent  is  a  taskmaster  to 
his  teachers,  the  teachers  will  be  taskmasters  to  their 
pupils. 

Administrative  Difficulties  blocking  the  Development 
of  the  Regimen  of  Work.  —  In  the  foregoing  paragraphs 
the  importance  of  initiating  and  carrying  through  to  the 
letter  a  well-constructed  daily  time-table  has  been 
emphasized,  and  the  need  of  directing  one's  own  enthu- 
siasm to  the  end  that  each  unit  of  work  may  have  the 
quality  of  businesslike  "  go "  and  vitality  has  been 
recognized.  The  difficulty  of  fulfilling  the  former  condi- 
tion, however,  merits  a  brief  reference.  One  of  the 
consequences  of  "  enriching  "  the  program  of  studies  has 
been  an  increased  difficulty  of  constructing  such  a  time- 
table, and  the  still  greater  difficulty,  once  the  time-table 
has  been  constructed,  of  holding  to  the  limits  that  it  sets. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  introduction  of  new  subjects 


THE    REGIMEN    OF    WORK  I2Q 

has  necessitated  administrative  expedients  that  operate 
strongly  against  the  development  of  the  regimen  of 
work.  The  whole  system  of  " supervising"  the  so-called 
"  special  "  subjects  (music,  drawing,  nature  study,  and 
the  like)  seems  to  be  a  most  cumbrous  method  of  getting 
these  subjects  started  in  the  schools. 

There  is  very  good  reason  to  look  upon  these  more 
recent  additions  to  the  elementary  school  program  as 
special  activities  to  be  looked  after  wherever  possible  by 
special  teachers  rather  than  by  the  regular  teachers  under 
the  direction  of  special  supervisors.  This  plan  has  been 
adopted  by  the  Gary,  Ind.,  schools  *  with  excellent 
results.  By  this  plan  of  organization,  the  special  sub- 
jects (such  as  drawing,  music,  manual  training,  industrial 
work,  physical  training,  and  play)  are  taken  care  of  by 
specialists,  and  find  a  place  in  the  regular  program.  The 
"  regular  subjects "  (such  as  arithmetic,  geography, 
history,  language,  spelling,  and  the  like)  are  divided 
between  two  regular  teachers  for  each  group  of  pupils, 
all  of  the  grades  being  operated  on  the  "  departmental  " 
plan  of  instruction  to  this  extent.  The  great  advantage 
of  this  organization  from  our  present  point  of  view  is  that 
it  permits  a  regular  program  to  be  established  and  main- 
tained without  the  interruption  and  breaking  up  of  rou- 
tine activities  inevitable  in  a  system  where  the  regular 
teachers  work  under  special  supervisors.  It  also  per- 
mits a  large  measure  of  specialization  among  the  special 

1  See  W.  P.  Burriss,  The  Gary  System  of  Schools.     Bui.  U.  S.  Bureau 
of  Education,  No.  18,  1914. 
K 


130  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

teachers,  and  a  goodly  measure  among  the  regular 
teachers,  thereby  obviating  the  demand  that  each  teacher 
should  teach  all  subjects  with  equal  enthusiasm. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Note  the  difference  in  the  meetings  of  teachers  or  in 
the  classes  that  you  attend,  between  those  that  start'promptly 
and  briskly  and  those  that  start  tardily  and  without  "spirit. " 
Contrast  the  closing  of  the  exercises  from  the  same  point  of 
view. 

2.  Discuss  the  relation  of  the  following  factors  to  the 
establishment  of  an  effective  "  regimen  of  work  "  :  the  teacher's 
health;   the  ventilation  of  the  schoolroom;   the  daily  pro- 
gram or  time-table;   the  daily  preparation  of  the  teacher; 
the  routine  of  special  supervision  (music,  drawing,  manual 
training,  etc.). 

3.  In  your  own  experience  has  the  preparation  of  classes 
for   special    exercises,    dramatics,    pageants,    and   the   like 
broken  up  the  systematic  regimen  of  daily  work  in  a  serious 
way?    Would  such  exercises  be  likely  to  have  this  effect? 
If  so,  what  precautions  would  you  take  to  counteract  the 
disturbing  influence? 

4.  Make  a  few  tests  to  determine  whether  you   can 
"direct"    your   own   interests   and   enthusiasms.     William 
James  once  suggested  that  every  one  should  give  his  will  "  a 
little  gratuitous  exercise  every   day,"  —  meaning   thereby 
that  we  should  each  day  do  at  least  one  task  that  we  neither 
"have"  to  do  nor  like  to  do  in  order  to  "keep  the  faculty 
of  effort  alive."    There  is  commonly  some  surprising  self- 
revelation  in  attempting  to  follow  this  advice ! 

5.  Can  you  suggest  ways  in  which  the  school  may  teach 
pupils  to  be  masters  of  their  interests  and  enthusiasms  rather 
than  to  be  mastered  by  them? 


CHAPTER  IX 

TRANSFORMING  THE  UNRULY  SCHOOL  :   (F)  THE  PLACE 
AND  LIMITATIONS  OF  COERCIVE  MEASURES 

THE  five  preceding  chapters  have  emphasized  various 
methods  of  transforming  the  spirit  of  the  unruly  school 
primarily  by  insuring  a  transfer  of  the  attention  of  the 
pupils  from  idling  and  mischief-making  propensities  to 
wholesome  school  activities.  The  methods  hitherto 
proposed  might  be  termed,  from  one  point  of  view, 
"  indirect "  or  "  noncoercive  "  methods.  Neither  des- 
ignation is  quite  satisfactory,  however,  for  they  are 
really  "  direct  "  in  their  operation,  and  they  distinctly 
contemplate  a  "  coercive "  influence.  This  influence, 
however,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  confined  to  the 
coercion  of  the  work  in  hand  or  of  the  social  group,  and 
aims  to  avoid  a  feeling  upon  the  part  of  the  pupil  that 
he  is  being  coerced  by  the  teacher  or  by  the  school  as 
such. 

It  has  not  been  intimated  that  there  is  no  place  for  that 
type  of  coercion  which  the  pupil  distinctly  locates  in  the 
personality  of  the  teacher  or  in  the  authority  of  the 
school.  There  are,  indeed,  occasions  in  every  school 
when  this  authority  must  be  exercised  in  a  direct,  per- 
sonal way.  These  occasions,  the  type  of  treatment  that 

131 


132  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

they  justify,  and  the  limitations  of  this  type  of  treat- 
ment, will  be  the  theme  of  the  present  chapter. 

The  Scope  of  Direct  Coercion.  —  Of  all  of  the  methods 
that  may  be  employed  in  reducing  the  unruly  school  to 
law  and  order,  we  place  last  this  method  of  direct  coer- 
cion ;  not  because  it  is  the  last  method  to  be  employed, 
—  a  final,  "  last  resort "  when  all  else  fails,  —  for 
sometimes  (indeed,  frequently)  the  first  step  in  curbing 
an  unruly  spirit  will  be  the  direct  exercise  of  authority ; 
but  it  should  receive  less  emphasis  than  the  methods 
heretofore  discussed  because  it  is  upon  the  latter  that  the 
chief  hope  of  working  a  permanent  and  educationally 
important  influence  must  rest.  The  iron  hand  may  be 
needed  to  initiate  order  and  to  teach  the  very  basic 
lessons  of  respect  for  the  authority  of  the  law  and  for  the 
rights  of  others ;  but  this  initial  lesson  taught  in  this  way 
must  quickly  be  supplemented  by  other  lessons  in  which 
the  primary  aim  will  be  to  engender  something  more  than 
a  willing  or  unwilling  submission  to  established  authority. 

This  principle  applies  with  equal  force  to  all  forms  of  civil 
government.  Authority  may  compel  because  of  its  might, 
and  often  it  must  compel  because  of  its  responsibility ;  but 
the  type  of  order  that  is  most  effective  is  that  in  which  the 
fact  of  coercion  is  least  hi  evidence.  In  the  city  and  the 
state,  as  in  the  school,  the  condition  that  is  sought  is  a 
"fashion"  of  obeying  the  law  and  respecting  the  rights  of 
others ;  and  while  the  forces  that  can  coerce  must  be  made 
plainly  evident  to  those  who  can  be  appealed  to  in  no  other 
way,  the  wise  executive  keeps  them  from  constantly  and 
irritatingly  impinging  upon  public  attention. 


COERCIVE    MEASURES  133 

The  First  Principle:  Coercive  Measures  must  be 
Swift,  Certain,  and  Unerring.  —  The  influence  of  a 
coercive  force  is  very  distinctly  a  function  of  the  celerity 
and  certainty  with  which  it  operates,  for  the  important 
influence  of  such  a  force  lies  not  so  much  in  its  actual 
operation  as  in  its  "  moral  "  effect.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  disciplinary  efficiency,  such  bodies  as  the  Mounted 
Police  of  Canada,  the  State  Constabulary  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  Marine  Corps  of  the  United  States  Navy 
represent  ideal  types.  The  traditions  of  inflexible 
loyalty  to  purpose  which  have  clustered  about  these 
organizations  have  made  their  very  names  pregnant 
with  coercive  force;  and  these  traditions  have  accu- 
mulated, not  because  lawbreakers  have  come  to  fear 
the  severity  of  the  treatment  which  these  police  bodies 
accord  to  them,  but  rather  because  the  operations  are 
swift,  certain,  and  incorruptible.  The  general  respect  in 
which  the  police  functions  of  the  Federal  government 
are  held  as  compared  with  the  police  functions  of  munic- 
ipalities and  states,  is  due  to  the  same  factors.  It  is 
not  a  difference  in  the  severity  of  the  penalties  imposed, 
but  rather  a  difference  in  the  relentless  certainty  with 
which  crime  is  detected,  located,  and  punished.  The 
relative  freedom  of  England  from  serious  crime,  as  com- 
pared with  the  United  States,  has  been  attributed  to  a 
similar  difference  in  the  administration  of  justice  in  the 
two  countries. 

The  authority  of  those  in  charge  of  a  school  becomes  a 
moral  force  in  the  discipline  of  the  school  under  precisely 


134  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  same  conditions.  "  Few  rules  rigidly  enforced  "  is 
a  cardinal  precept  of  school  management.  It  is  the 
writer's  belief  that,  in  this  connection,  rigor  is  the  first 
principle  of  success.  There  are  some  activities  and 
tendencies  that  must  be  absolutely  prohibited  in  every 
school,  and  lapses  from  these  requirements  should  be 
swiftly,  vigorously,  and  persistently  prosecuted.  No 
step  is  more  important  than  this  in  the  transformation 
of  an  unruly  school. 

What  these  forbidden  activities  are  will  vary  in  different 
schools.  In  old  schoolhouses,  crowded  with  children,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  rigid  rules  with  regard  to  the  passing  of 
lines  and  to  the  movement  of  the  pupils  through  the  corridors 
and  on  the  stairways,  to  the  end  that  perfect  discipline  may 
be  maintained  in  case  of  fire  or  incipient  panic.  In  modern 
fireproof  structures,  built  with  two  or  more  well-lighted 
stairways  with  "landings"  breaking  the  drop  from  floor  to 
floor,  with  relatively  low  "risers,"  and  with  well-located 
exits,  the  danger  from  fire  and  panic  is  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum, and  the  same  restrictions  on  the  movements  of  pupils 
may  not  be  necessary.  Again,  where  school  grounds  are 
small,  the  safety  of  all  pupils  will  require  the  prohibition  of 
certain  games  which  might  well  be  permitted  under  other 
conditions. 

There  are,  however,  certain  forms  of  behavior  that  should 
be  "against  the  rule"  in  every  school.  Profanity,  indecency, 
the  marking  of  walls  and  other  injury  to  property,  impudence 
to  teachers  and  to  passers-by,  the  throwing  of  snowballs  in 
the  school  yard  (except  under  conditions  where  this  may  be 
done  without  danger),  playing  marbles  "for  keeps,"1  and  any 

1  In  his  Classroom  Management  (1907),  the  writer  listed  playing 
marbles  "for  keeps"  among  forbidden  activities.  Felix  Arnold  (School 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  135 

other  form  of  gambling,  rough  treatment  of  younger  pupils 
in  the  school  yard  or  on  the  way  to  and  from  school,  cheat- 
ing in  studies  or  in  games,  falsifying,  and  pilfering  fall  under 
this  head.  Of  these,  some  are  so  distinctly  provided  for  in 
the  common  and  statute  law,  and  others  are  so  generally 
"  taboo "  among  decent  men  and  women,  that  specific  "rules" 
against  them  need  not  be  enunciated  in  school.  In  general, 
however,  where  an  act  is  to  be  prohibited,  the  nature  of  the 
forbidden  act  should  be  carefully  explained  to  the  pupils 
and  the  reasons  for  its  prohibition  made  clear.  After  this 
step  has  been  taken,  lapses  from  the  requirement  should 
be  treated  as  serious  offenses  against  the  authority  of  the 
school. 

In  the  unruly  school,  many  of  the  forms  of  miscon- 
duct just  noted  will  be  matters  of  common  practice  among 
the  pupils,  and  the  teacher  or  principal  assuming  charge 
of  such  a  school  will  do  well  at  the  outset  to  concentrate 
upon  one  or  two  of  the  more  serious  offenses,  and  "  settle" 
them  first.  While  steps  should  be  taken  to  change  the 
attitude  of  the  pupils  toward  the  school  and  its  work 
as  indicated  in  the  preceding  chapters,  it  is  essential 

and  Class  Management,  New  York,  1908,  p.  351)  approves  of  this  "  sport" 
on  the  ground  that  it  is  not  primarily  a  game  of  chance,  that  it  requires 
some  skill  on  the  part  of  the  player,  that  it  is  "a  training  in  eye  and  hand 
adjustments,"  and  that  it  is  "a  means  of  developing  social  control." 
There  are,  of  course,  good  reasons  for  caution  in  extending  the  concept 
of  "gambling"  to  cover  innocent  sports.  It  is  the  writer's  belief,  how- 
ever, that  marble  playing  for  stakes  is  an  activity  that  might  well  be 
discouraged  by  the  school.  Its  alleged  virtues  are  extremely  question- 
able, and  the  writer  is  convinced  that  the  type  of  interest  that  it  engen- 
ders in  the  average  boy  is  far  from  wholesome.  With  the  development 
of  supervised  plays  and  games,  there  should  be  smaller  and  smaller 
space  for  these  questionable  activities. 


136  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

that  the  most  serious  disturbances  should  be  met  with 
firm,  determined  treatment  at  the  very  outset.  To 
permit  these  forms  of  misbehavior  to  persist  until  one 
has  "  gained  the  confidence  of  one's  pupils  "  is  likely 
to  be  fatal ;  and,  beyond  this,  a  clear  and  decisive  triumph 
at  the  outset  will  do  much  to  insure  a  ready  acquiescence 
in  the  noncoercive  measures. 

The  Decisive  "  Coup  "  as  a  Means  of  Insuring  Initial 
Order.  —  The  suggestion  just  made  merits  further 
emphasis.  With  children  as  with  adults,  in  school  life 
as  in  politics,  business,  and  war,  a  powerful  psycho- 
logical effect  is  produced  by  quick,  decisive  movements 
that,  through  their  success,  immediately  establish 
prestige  and  authority.  The  teacher  or  principal  who 
is  called  upon  to  take  charge  of  a  difficult  school  may 
well  look  for  opportunities  to  make  one  of  the  decisive 
coups  as  early  as  possible.  Under  these  conditions,  it  is 
both  necessary  and  legitimate  deliberately  to  take  steps 
that  will  insure  a  strategic  advantage,  —  giving  one  an 
immediate  mastery  of  the  situation  and  making  it  pos- 
sible for  one  to  put  into  operation  the  measures  that  will 
make  for  permanent  reform.  It  not  infrequently  hap- 
pens, indeed,  that  a  decisive  coup  at  the  outset  will  do 
away  with  the  necessity  for  further  coercive  measures. 

A  situation  has  come  to  the  writer's  attention  which 
clearly  illustrates  this  principle  —  although,  as  in  the  study 
of  all  concrete  cases  of  discipline,  it  is  well  to  be  cautious  in 
making  generalizations.  It  was  the  first  of  April,  and  the 
upper-grade  boys  of  a  large  elementary  school  had  decided 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  137 

among  themselves  that  this  day  of  ancient  fame  should  be 
accorded  holiday  distinction.  The  trouble  brewed  during 
the  morning  recess  without  coming  to  the  attention  of  the 
principal.  When  he  returned  to  the  schoolhouse  as  was  his 
custom  a  half  hour  before  the  beginning  of  the  afternoon 
session,  he  saw  at  once  that  something  was  wrong.  There 
was  an  ominous  silence  among  the  pupils  who  had  gathered 
on  the  school  grounds,  an  ominous  absence  of  certain  familiar 
faces,  and  sundry  curious  glances  portending  an  excited  ex- 
pectation upon  the  part  of  the  pupils  that  something  would 
happen  before  long.  A  little  inquiry  revealed  the  difficulty. 
About  thirty  boys  from  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  had 
left  in  a  body,  and  were  reported  to  be  trooping  down  toward 
the  river. 

The  time  was  all  too  short  for  prolonged  meditation.  In 
an  emergency  of  this  type,  it  is  quick  thought  and  immediate 
action  that  are  "indicated."  The  contour  of  the  river 
course  came  quickly  to  the  principal's  mind,  and  with  it  the 
opportunity  of  solving  the  situation.  Telephoning  to  the 
attendance  officer  and  to  the  police  department,  he  secured 
two  large  wagons,  and  a  detail  of  aides  for  the  officer.  The 
boys,  he  believed,  would  be  found  on  the  bank  of  the  river 
at  the  elbow  of  a  sharp  bend,  —  it  was  a  favorite  point  of 
rendezvous  for  fishing  and  swimming,  and  was  only  a  short 
distance  from  town.  The  banks  of  the  river  rose  precipi- 
tously on  the  farther  side;  there  was  no  bridge  and  the  tem- 
perature was  still  too  low  to  make  swimming  the  river  in  one's 
clothing  a  thoroughly  delightful  prospect.  Within  ten  minutes 
after  the  principal  reached  the  school,  wagons  with  the  attend- 
ance officer  and  his  aides  had  started  for  the  river  bend ;  in  ten 
minutes  more,  the  truants  were  "rounded  up"  on  the  river 
bank,  and,  recognizing  that  they  had  been  caught  in  a  trap, 
they  surrendered  gracefully,  were  loaded  into  the  wagons, 
and  hurried  back  to  the  schoolhouse,  which  they  reached 


138  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

only  a  few  minutes  after  the  afternoon  session  had  commenced. 
They  were  greeted  —  not  unpleasantly  —  by  the  principal 
and  told  to  go  at  once  to  their  rooms.  But  here  a  murmur 
of  discontent  arose.  Some  even  pleaded  for  the  traditional 
punishment;  others  sought  to  gain  time  (and consequently 
mitigate  the  keenness  of  their  fiasco)  by  arguing  the  matter. 
But  the  principal  was  relentless.  This  was  the  denouement 
for  which  he  had  contrived  the  plot.  They  must  "face  the 
music"  of  the  ridicule  of  their  fellow  pupils  who  had  not 
yielded  to  the  pressure  of  misguided  leadership.  The  tri- 
umph was  complete,  and  the  situation  was  solved  in  a  trice, 
amidst  the  laughter  of  the  many  and  the  discomfiture  of  the 
few. 

In  the  foregoing  instance,  it  is  not  the  specific  steps 
that  are  important  from  our  present  point  of  view.  It 
is  rather  the  efficacy  of  the  quick  and  decisive  triumph 
which  establishes  at  once  the  prestige  or  the  generalship 
of  the  teacher  or  the  principal ;  and  this  generalship 
the  teacher  or  the  principal  who  expects  to  deal  effectively 
with  large  bodies  of  boys  and  girls  must  either  develop, 
or,  for  lack  of  it,  yield  to  the  inevitable.  No  changing 
ideals  of  school  government  can  change  the  fundamental 
principles  of  human  nature.  Methods  of  treatment 
may  vary ;  the  rod  may  give  way ;  physical  compulsion 
of  the  old-fashioned  type  may  be  discarded.  But  one 
factor  persists.  Boys  —  and  men  for  that  matter  — 
still  have  an  instinctive  admiration  for  one  who  can 
quickly  and  decisively  master  a  situation  and  change 
apparent  defeat  into  an  unquestioned  triumph.  And  if 
this  triumph  comes  with  little  apparent  effort,  and  to 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  139 

one  who  has  not  boasted  or  stormed  or  blustered  about 
what  he  would  do,  it  may  become  one  of  those  fortunate 
events  that  live  on  as  "  traditions,"  giving  one  power 
and  prestige  for  which  he  would  otherwise  strive  in 
vain. 

An  important  condition  of  this  quick,  decisive  treat- 
ment is  the  absence  of  further  reference  to  the  unpleasant 
events.  The  situation  has  been  settled  and  the  trouble 
should  be  speedily  forgotten.  The  preservation  of  the 
"  objective  attitude,"  upon  which  so  much  stress  was 
laid  in  a  preceding  chapter,  is  imperiled  if  the  tense 
situation  is  permitted  to  continue.  Once  the  unruly 
spirit  has  been  subdued  by  a  quick  and  decisive  triumph, 
the  time  is  opportune  and  the  need  imperative  for  insti- 
tuting measures  which  will  look  toward  a  permanent 
transformation  of  the  pupils'  attitude  toward  the  work. 

The  Principle  of  Persistence.  —  But  if  the  initial  at- 
tempt at  a  decisive  and  immediate  solution  of  a  diffi- 
cult disciplinary  situation  is  unsuccessful,  one  is  not  to 
conclude  that  other  measures  are  futile.  The  invariable 
tendency  of  the  young  teacher  is  to  give  up  too  soon. 
Where  the  demand  that  the  teacher  is  making  is  justified, 
it  cannot  safely  be  relaxed.  Obedience  must  be  secured, 
and  there  must  be  no  halt  in  the  proceedings  until 
obedience  is  forthcoming.  Here  it  is  not  only  permis- 
sible but  often  necessary  to  drop  everything  else  until 
one's  end  is  gained. 

The  following  plan,  worked  out  by  a  group  of  teachers 
in  the  Washington  Irving  High  School  for  Girls,  New 


140  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

York  City,  illustrates  this  principle  so  clearly  that  it  is 
quoted  in  full : 

"i.  This  is  a  proposition  discussed,  formulated,  and 
amended  in  the  Teachers'  Councils  of  the  Washington 
Irving  High  School,  and  recommended  to  the  Principal  for 
trial. 

"2.  Courtesy  is  so  valuable  as  an  asset  for  success  in 
life  that  I,  a  teacher,  ought  to  make  it  habitual  in  those 
under  my  charge. 

"3.  Silent  obedience  is  a  form  of  courtesy  required  in 
business  and  other  organizations,  and  it  is  my  duty  to  train 
this  habit. 

"4.  New  and  substitute  teachers  should  realize  that  they 
can  have  this  if  they  will  insist  upon  it  from  the  first  moment 
and,  if  failing  to  get  it,  will  follow  this  procedure. 

"5.  Select  one  girl  from  the  group  of  apparent  dis- 
turbers; never  attempt  to  cure  more  than  one  case  at  a 
time.  Give  the  scheme  a  chance  to  work.  Don't  talk, 
don't  scold,  don't  raise  your  voice.  Give  her  a  distinct 
direction  and  add,  'Do  this  silently.' 

"6.  If  the  girl  disobeys,  send  another  girl  for  a  patrol 
who  will  be  found  on  that  floor  or  one  floor  below.  The 
teacher  and  the  patrol  will  then  give  the  girl  an  opportunity 
to  obey. 

"7.  Patrol  and  teacher  fill  out  a  memorandum  ...  for 
record  in  the  Bureau  of  Recommendations:  'Smith,  Mary, 
264,  discourteous  and  disobedient.  Feb.  19,  1914.  Annie 
White,  Teacher ;  Mary  Brown,  Patrol.  Finally  obeyed.'  .  .  . 

"  8.  If  the  girl  fails,  patrol  will  keep  her  till  end  of  period, 
giving  her  an  opportunity  to  add  to  report :  '  I  regret  my 
disobedience.  I  intend  to  follow  all  directions  of  Washing- 
ton Irving  teachers  without  retort  or  comment.  Mary 
Smith.' 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  141 

"9.  Remember  this  is  not  intended  for  punishment  but 
for  habit  formation.  Don't  talk.  Don't  encourage  the  girl 
to  talk.  Treat  the  case  like  a  doctor,  quietly. 

"10.  (Directs  that  pupil  be  sent  to  deputy  principal  if 
she  still  refuses.) 

"n.  The  new  or  substitute  teacher  will  repeat  this  over 
and  over  as  long  as  the  remaining  class  is  not  under  control. 
It  is  not  a  device  aiming  at  justice  or  selection  of  the  worst 
offender  or  at  punishment.  It  is  a  demonstration  to  girls 
that  courtesy  and  obedience  is  the  inviolable  rule. 

"12.  Other  teachers  should  use  this  plan  when  they  see 
the  need  of  it.  They  know  the  futility  of  weakening  this 
process  by  use  except  in  serious  cases."  1 

The  above  plan,  it  will  be  seen,  is  adapted  to  a  some- 
what peculiar  situation.  The  Washington  Irving  High 
School  is  probably  the  largest  school  of  its  kind,  enrolling 
6000  girls.  It  is  one  of  the  best-known  high  schools  in 
the  world  to-day.  It  is  especially  remarkable  for  the 
effective  esprit  de  corps  that  has  been  developed  in  the 
pupil  body,  and  for  the  spirit  of  cooperation  that  has 
been  developed  between  the  teachers  and  the  pupils. 
If  the  beginning  teacher  in  a  small  and  unknown  school, 
having  read  the  above  suggestions,  will  remember  that 
they  have  been  worked  out  to  meet  the  conditions  that 
exist  in  one  of  the  best  schools  in  the  world,  he  or  she 
will  perhaps  be  less  likely  to  surrender,  to  take  discipli- 
nary troubles  personally,  and  least  of  all  to  fail  in  the 
patient,  unremitting  persistence  that  is  often  the  sole 

1  Quoted  from  Writs  of  Assistance,  the  handbook  of  the  teaching  staff 
of  the  Washington  Irving  High  School. 


142  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

condition  of  success.  One  may  not  be  able  to  call 
patrols  or  send  pupils  to  the  principal  or  have  a  con- 
venient Bureau  of  Recommendations  in  which  to  lodge 
a  complaint  that  may  cost  a  recalcitrant  a  good  job 
when  he  or  she  is  through  school ;  but  one  may  at  least 
keep  an  objective  attitude  and  utilize  the  means  that 
are  at  hand  with  a  firm  faith  that  one  is  acting  con- 
sistently with  recognized  tenets. 

Where  Direct,  Coercive  Measures  are  "  Indicated." 
-  (a)  The  Indulged  or  Spoiled  School.  —  The  type  of  dis- 
orderly school  that  most  distinctly  needs  the  domina- 
tion of  an  "  iron  hand  "  is  the  one  in  which  a  weak  ad- 
ministration has  permitted  liberty  to  grow  into  license, 
and  has  encouraged  lawlessness  through  temporizing 
measures  which  have  effectually  placed  the  "  control  " 
of  the  school  in  the  hands  of  the  dominating  personali- 
ties among  the  pupils.  The  situation  which  thus  arises 
is  an  extremely  difficult  one  with  which  to  cope  success- 
fully because  the  custom  of  obedience  has  often  been 
completely  broken  down,  and  the  natural  instincts  of 
docility  and  tractability  have  been  entirely  perverted. 
The  following  case1  illustrates  very  clearly  this  type  of 
disciplinary  situation: 

Mr.  H was  appointed  to  teach  the  eighth  and  ninth 

grades  in  a  town  system  enrolling  about  two  hundred  pupils. 
Three  predecessors  had  occupied  the  position  in  quick  suc- 
cession, each  leaving  after  a  few  weeks'  struggle  with  the  dis- 
ciplinary difficulties.  On  the  morning  when  Mr.  H 

1  The  accuracy  of  this  case  is  vouched  for  by  Professor  L.  D.  Coff man. 


COERCIVE    MEASURES  143 

took  charge  of  the  room,  he  found  on  the  floor  literally 
hundreds  of  match  heads.  He  learned  that  the  boys  filled 
their  pockets  with  these  match  heads,  slit  small  holes  in  the 
pockets,  and  then  permitted  the  matches  to  fall  out  as  they 
walked  about  the  room.  As  a  result,  there  was  a  continual 
snapping  of  matches  throughout  the  day.  Another  favorite 
bit  of  mischief  was  to  fill  the  mouth  with  very  small  shot, 
remove  the  erasers  from  the  ends  of  lead  pencils,  slip  in  a 
load  of  shot  from  the  buccal  magazine,  and  then,  with  a  sly 
twist  of  the  wrist,  send  the  shot  flying  through  the  air.  The 
snapping  of  the  matches  and  the  continual  patter  of  shot 
constituted  an  interesting  diversion,  but  the  pupils  were 
not  satisfied  with  this.  Dead  animals  —  cats,  rats,  and  mice 
particularly  —  were  smuggled  into  the  schoolroom  and 
hidden  in  the  desks  of  suspecting  or  unsuspecting  pupils 
where  they  were  discovered  a  little  later  with  great  surprise 
and  many  evidences  of  disgust,  all  of  which  redounded  to  the 
keen  enjoyment  of  the  smugglers. 

On  this  first  day,  Mr.  H waited  quietly  until  he  defi- 
nitely located  responsibility  for  mischief  in  eight  different 
boys.  Then  he  procured  a  whalebone  whip,  and  adminis- 
tered to  each  of  the  offenders  a  severe  chastisement.  This 
brought  the  shot  throwing  and  the  match  snapping  to  a 
sudden  stop.  But,  while  the  room  was  reasonably  quiet  and 
orderly,  the  spirit  still  remained  antagonistic.  Matters  went 
on  in  this  unsatisfactory  way  until  Friday. 

It  had  been  the  custom  to  devote  each  Friday  afternoon 
to  "rhetorical  exercises,"  planned  and  conducted  by  the 

pupils  themselves.  On  this  first  Friday,  Mr.  H followed 

the  habit  of  his  predecessors  by  withdrawing  entirely  from 
the  conduct  of  the  exercises,  taking  a  seat  as  a  spectator  in 
the  rear  of  the  room.  A  pupil  presided  over  the  program, 
which  was  made  up  of  recitations  and  declamations,  conclud- 
ing with  an  original  "paper"  —  a  journalistic  adventure 


144  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

devoted  chiefly  to  crude  jokes  and  personal  "roasts."  After 
the  exercises  had  been  completed,  the  teacher  announced 
that  on  the  following  Friday  the  time  devoted  to  these  "rhe- 
toricals"  would  be  limited  to  the  period  following  the  after- 
noon recess.  There  was  some  demurring  on  the  part  of  the 
pupils,  but  the  teacher  stood  firm,  and  the  pupils  finally 
consented.  By  the  third  Friday,  Mr.  H —  -  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  exercises  as  then  conducted  were 
thoroughly  bad  for  the  school,  and  especially  subversive  of 
discipline.  He  then  announced  that,  thereafter,  he  would 
look  over  the  "paper"  before  the  meeting.  It  was  presented 
to  him,  and  he  very  liberally  blue-penciled  the  coarser  jokes. 
The  pupil  who  had  prepared  the  paper,  an  adolescent  boy, 

John  B ,  received  it  in  silence  but  with  a  look  on  his 

face  that  betokened  trouble.  The  preliminary  part  of  Fri- 
day's program  was  carried  through  as  usual.  When  the 
paper  was  announced,  John  arose  with  flushed  face.  "Mr. 
President,"  he  said,  "I  refuse  to  read  the  paper.  The  teacher 
has  marked  out  all  of  the  principal  items.  I  move  that  next 
Friday  we  begin  these  exercises  at  fifteen  minutes  after  one, 
and  that  we  prepare  them  and  carry  them  out  without  any 
interference  from  the  teacher."  The  announcement  was 
greeted  with  strong  approval  by  the  pupils,  but  before  action 
could  be  taken,  the  teacher,  who  had  foreseen  this  climax, 
had  taken  his  place  upon  the  platform.  In  a  calm  voice  he 
announced  that  the  organization  was  adjourned  permanently, 
and  that  there  would  be  no  more  Friday  afternoon  exercises 
until  he  gave  the  requisite  permission.  He  then  turned  to 
John  and  told  him  that  he  would  be  excused  from  school 
until  he  had  changed  his  attitude  toward  those  in  authority. 
John,  however,  instead  of  going  to  his  home  went  to  the 
office  of  the  superintendent  of  schools.  This  superintendent 
attempted  to  operate  his  schools  by  currying  the  favor  of  the 
troublesome  pupils.  He  immediately  took  advantage  of  the 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  145 

situation  to  establish  himself  in  John's  good  graces.  In  a 
few  minutes,  John  was  back  in  his  room  with  a  message  from 
the  superintendent  to  the  effect  that  he  should  be  permitted 

to  remain  at  his  work.  Mr.  H ,  however,  refused  to 

admit  him.  Dismissing  his  class,  he  went  at  once  to  the 
superintendent  and  presented  his  resignation.  Then  going 
to  the  president  of  the  school  board,  he  explained  the  situa- 
tion and  gave  the  news  of  his  resignation.  The  board  was 
hastily  called  together.  The  resignation  was  received,  but 

not  accepted.  Mr.  H was  asked  upon  what  terms  he 

would  remain,  and  replied  that  he  would  stay  if  he  were 
removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  superintendent.  This 
was  granted,  and  he  was  placed  in  complete  charge  of  his 
room.  John  went  before  the  board  and  pleaded  for  rein- 
statement, but  the  board  stood  firm  and  placed  the  whole 
matter  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  H . 

At  the  end  of  two  weeks,  John  returned  to  the  school 
which  had  in  the  meantime  settled  down  into  a  wholesome 
spirit  of  work  and  cooperation  with  the  teacher.  He  was 
told  that  he  must  prepare  an  apology  to  the  teacher  and  to 
the  school  and  read  it  before  the  school,  and  furthermore  that 
he  must  read  it  in  a  manner  that  indicated  clearly  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  character  of  his  offense  and  the  sincerity  of  his 
promises  for  future  good  conduct.  He  prepared  the  apology 
and  promised  to  present  it  in  the  desired  manner,  but  when 
the  time  came,  he  adopted  an  insolent  and  surly  tone.  In- 
stantly the  teacher  announced  a  further  suspension.  At 
this  point,  John  broke  down  and  read  his  apology  in  a  spirit 
of  humility  and  contrition.  He  was  readmitted,  but  his  spirit 
during  the  remainder  of  the  term,  while  not  rebellious,  was 
still  far  from  sympathetic.  The  school,  however,  with  this 
one  exception,  was  entirely  transformed  in  spirit  and 
attitude. 

It  is  always  important  to  investigate  the  sequela  of  disci- 


146  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

plinary  troubles,  —  a  precaution  that  those  reporting  cases 
of  this  type  frequently  overlook.  In  this  instance,  however, 
the  ultimate  outcome  of  the  treatment  may  be  inferred  from 
a  supplementary  statement  accompanying  the  report.  Mr. 

H was  reappointed  to  his  position  for  the  second  year, 

but  declined  in  order  to  accept  a  principalship  in  a  neighbor- 
ing city.  He  did  not  return  to  the  scene  of  his  early  experi- 
ences until  several  years  later,  when  he  visited  the  town  in  the 
capacity  of  instructor  at  the  county  institute.  The  first 

person  to  greet  him  at  this  institute  was  John  B ,  who  had 

completed  the  high  school  course,  and  had  become  a  teacher. 
He  had  married  and  was  living  with  his  family  in  the  town. 

He  insisted  that  Mr.  H remain  at  his  home  during  the 

week  of  the  institute.    On  the  first  evening  of  the  institute, 

a  reception  was  given  to  Mr.  H ,  and  at  this  reception 

he  met  seven  of  the  eight  boys  who  had  received  summary 
punishment  on  the  first  day  of  school.  They  had  done  well 
in  their  school  work,  and  they  gave  him  to  understand 
very  clearly  that  his  masterful  handling  of  the  school  at  a 
critical  period  was  a  turning  point  in  their  lives.  The 
eighth  boy  who  was  punished  on  that  memorable  day  had 
moved  away  from  town;  years  afterward,  however,  when 

Mr.  H was  lecturing  in  the  Far  West,  he  met  a  man  who 

introduced  himself  as  one  of  the  eight  recalcitrants.  From 
him,  too,  there  came  abundant  testimony  of  the  wholesome 
influence  of  the  vigorous  treatment. 

(6)  The  School  in  Rebellion.  —  The  instance  cited 
above  would  serve,  in  part,  to  illustrate  a  case  of  rebellion 
or  mutiny.  There  are,  however,  types  of  rebellion  which 
are  more  clearly  denned,  and  which  are  due  to  causes 
other  than  indulgence  or  weakness  in  the  school  ad- 
ministration. In  these  cases,  coercive  measures  are  al- 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  147 

most  always  "  indicated  "  at  the  outset  —  always  with 
the  proviso  that  they  be  supplemented  immediately  by 
measures  of  the  type  described  in  the  preceding  chapters. 
Rebellion  means  the  end  of  school  government,  and  if 
the  government  is  to  persist,  the  rebellion  must  be  sub- 
dued. In  general,  there  is  in  school  small  place  for 
"  treating  "  with  recalcitrants  or  for  compromise  of  any 
sort.  This  practice  is,  in  effect,  an  attempt  to  purchase 
order,  and  against  this  as  a  school  policy  we  have  already 
protested.  Real  and  justifiable  grievances,  here  as  else- 
where, should  certainly  be  redressed;  accusations  of 
injustice  must  be  investigated ;  and  appropriate  meas- 
ures must  be  taken  to  insure  better  conditions  if  existing 
conditions  are  found  to  be  unjust  and  inequitable.  But 
neither  redress  nor  investigation  should  be  made  while 
rebellion  is  in  progress.  Order  must  come  first,  and  the 
rights  of  all,  including  the  teacher,  must  be  guaranteed. 
One  of  the  most  embarrassing  and  difficult  situations 
in  school  administration  is  created  when  a  classroom 
teacher,  through  a  series  of  tactless  blunders  or  careless 
and  perhaps  cruel  practices,  has  incited  rebellion  in  the 
pupil  body.  The  superintendent  recognizes  clearly  that 
the  condition  is  due  in  large  part  to  the  inefficiency  of 
the  teacher,  and  yet  he  must  support  the  teacher  until 
order  is  restored.  How  to  do  this  in  such  a  way  that 
the  administration  of  the  school  will  not  appear  in  the 
pupil's  eyes  to  be  a  party  to  the  injustice  is  a  difficult 
task.  But  upon  one  point  there  is  general  agreement: 
the  teacher  must  be  supported  until  order  is  restored.  To 


148  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

permit  the  pupils  to  believe  that,  by  making  trouble, 
they  can  rule  or  ruin  is  to  sow  the  seeds  of  permanent 
and  ever  increasing  difficulty ;  and  to  dismiss  a  teacher 
while  rebellion  is  in  progress  is  to  encourage  this  belief. 
(c)  Willful  Disobedience.  —  Individual  as  well  as 
group  rebellion  should  commonly  be  treated  by  coercive 
measures,  although,  as  we  suggested  in  a  preceding  chap- 
ter, it  is  sometimes  possible  in  a  school  where  the  fashion 
of  order  has  been  well  established  to  let  the  coercion  be 
of  the  indirect  type.  Before  this  fashion  has  had  an 
opportunity  to  become  established,  however,  there  are 
occasions  when  malicious  and  intentional  misbehavior 
will  need  drastic  treatment.  It  is  often  difficult  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  mischief  is  intentional  or  accidental ; 
some  pupils,  indeed,  have  mastered  in  a  high  degree  the 
art  of  feigning  injured  innocence,  and  these  pupils  are 
likely  to  cause  the  beginning  teacher  serious  trouble. 
In  general,  then,  it  is  well  at  the  outset  to  note  and  correct 
all  lapses  from  established  rules  and  restrictions.1  If  the 
lapse  is  unintentional,  a  stimulus  to  care  and  watchful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  pupil  is  essential ;  if  the  lapse  is 
intentional,  the  authority  of  the  teacher  is  under  test 

1  "  Let  the  teacher  realize  that  the  safety  of  life  here  in  an  emergency 
depends  upon  quick  obedience,  that  90  per  cent  of  fires  and  accidents 
are  due  to  disobedience,  that  every  organization,  domestic,  social,  com- 
mercial, educational,  for  some  one  or  more  of  which  we  are  preparing 
our  students,  requires  obedience  to  law  and  its  personal  representatives. 
Then  let  her  get  the  habit  fixed  in  all  persons  for  whom  she  is  respon- 
sible. Every  violation  weakens  the  habit  and  makes  harder  work  for 
you  and  for  every  other  teacher."  —  Washington  Irving  High  School, 
Writs  of  Assistance,  450. 


COERCIVE    MEASURES  149 

and  must  be  maintained.  The  experienced  teacher 
comes  to  know  the  symptoms  of  deceit,  and  the  pupils 
know  that  a  "  bluff  "  will  not  "  work,"  consequently 
they  do  not  indulge  in  the  game;  but  the  beginning 
teacher  is  a  constant  temptation  to  the  wit  and  cleverness 
of  his  or  her  young  charges,  and  needs  —  always  with 
the  "  objective  attitude  "  —  to  be  constantly  "  on 
guard." 

An  extreme  case,  cited  by  White,1  may  be  profitably  in- 
stanced in  this  connection : 

"A  lady  who  had  had  unusual  success  in  country  schools 
was  once  employed  to  take  charge  of  a  Cleveland  school 
which  two  successive  teachers  had  failed  to  control.  Nothing 
was  said  to  her  respecting  the  condition  of  the  school,  and  she 
took  charge  of  it,  anticipating  a  pleasant  experience  in  teach- 
ing in  the  city.  At  noon  she  returned  to  her  boarding  place 
in  tears,  and  said  to  her  brother  that  she  could  do  nothing 
with  the  boys  and  had  made  up  her  mind  to  resign  and  go 
back  into  the  country.  'I  have  done  my  best  to  interest  the 
boys,'  she  added,  'and  they  have  simply  run  over  me.  Boys 
have  gone  head  first  out  of  the  windows  and  back  again, 
whistling  at  me.'  —  'Do  not  think  of  resigning  .  .  .,'  said  the 
brother,  'but  go  back  and  put  your  school  in  order,  and  give 
the  boys  a  lesson  in  prompt  obedience.  Ask  them  to  rise 
quietly  at  the  beck  of  your  hand.  If  a  boy  fails  to  respond, 
attend  to  him.'  — '  Shall  I  whip  ? '  asked  the  troubled  teacher.  — 
'Whip?  Yes,  if  necessary,'  said  the  brother,  'and  I  will 
furnish  the  whips.  Your  school  is  in  rebellion.'  She  sighed 
and  took  the  whips  furnished,  and  returned  to  her  school 
'  to  try  the  experiment.'  She  came  back  at  the  close  of  school 
with  a  look  of  victory  in  her  face.  'Well,  Mary,'  said  the 

1  School  Management,  p.  208. 


150  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

brother,  '  what  kind  of  a  school  did  you  have  this  afternoon  ? ' 

—  'I  had  an  excellent  school,'  she  replied, '  the  last  hour.  .  .  .' 

—  'But  what  of  the  first  hour  ?'  said  the  brother.     'I  do  not 
like  to  say.'  —  '  Did  you  whip  ? '  —  '  Whip  !    I  whipped  a  half 
dozen  boys  the  first  twenty  minutes,  but  they  "toed  the 
mark"  after  that.     I  am  going  to  have  a  beautiful  school.' 

"  That  lady  taught  in  the  schools  of  Cleveland  until  she 
went  to  her  reward,  and  she  never  whipped  another  pupil. 
It  is  a  good  many  years  since  the  writer  gave  the  above  ad- 
vice, but  he  would  give  it  to-day  under  like  circumstances." 

(d)  Malicious  Mischief.  —  Under  this  head  will  come 
especially  "  vicious  "  types  of  misconduct,  such  as  mal- 
treatment of  other  (and  especially  younger)  pupils ;  in- 
solence and  insult  to  teachers  and  other  adults;  blas- 
phemy and  gambling ;  and  "  smartaleck-ism  "  at  fire 
drills  and  on  other  occasions  when  absolute  control  is 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  group.  Needless  to  say, 
the  school  must  treat  offenses  of  this  type  in  such  a  way 
as  to  stamp  an  effective  and  emphatic  disapproval  upon 
them  in  the  eyes  of  all  of  the  pupils.  Here  it  is  not  the 
individual  himself  that  is  primarily  concerned ;  it  is  the 
group ;  and  measures  that  may  be  effective  in  reforming 
the  individual  (such  as  moral  suasion)  must  be  supple- 
mented by  measures  that  will  serve  to  deter  others  from 
similar  offenses. 

The  grave  danger  that  is  involved  in  permitting  an  atti- 
tude of  "go-as-you-please"  obedience  upon  the  part  of 
pupils  is  only  too  clearly  seen  in  the  report  of  a  school  fire 
in  which  hundreds  of  little  children  lost  their  lives.  The  press 
reports  stated  (with  how  much  truth  we  are  unable  to  deter- 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  151 

mine)  that  when  the  fire  alarm  was  sounded,  several  of  the 
larger  boys  jokingly  shouted  "False  alarm !"  believing  it  to 
be  "only  a  fire  drill."  This  particular  incident  would  prob- 
ably be  accorded  small  weight  by  a  coroner's  jury,  but  to 
one  who  is  accustomed  to  judge  the  "spirit"  and  morale  of 
school  discipline  from  just  such  seemingly  trivial  expressions, 
the  statement  is  full  of  significance.  If  the  report  is  true,  it 
simply  means  that  the  school  was  poorly  disciplined,  and  that 
the  ensuing  panic  was  due,  not  to  "doors  that  opened  in- 
ward" (for  the  doors  happened  to  open  outward),  but  to  a 
lack  of  control  over  the  pupils.  The  administration  of  a 
school  that  permits  this  attitude  to  develop  is  essentially 
weak  and  inefficient.  Where  forty  or  four  hundred  children 
of  all  ages  are  gathered  together,  absolute,  instantaneous, 
and  whole-hearted  obedience  to  necessary  commands  is 
absolutely  essential.  These  commands  are  not  to  come,  per- 
haps, every  day ;  but  when  they  do  come,  there  must  be  no 
question  of  the  response.  Anything  in  the  way  of  neglect 
upon  the  part  of  the  teacher  that  will  make  control  under 
panic  conditions  impossible  should  be  condemned  in  the 
strongest  terms,  —  even  at  the  expense  of  a  pet  theory  of 
"individual  development"  with  which  arbitrary  obedience 
may  be  inconsistent.  And  the  only  way  in  which  the  attitude 
of  obedience  can  be  definitely  insured  is  to  treat  lapses  from 
obedience  at  all  times  as  serious  offenses. 

Another  difficulty  arises  in  connection  with  the  mal- 
treatment or  "  hazing  "  of  individual  pupils  who  are  either 
too  small  or  too  weak  or  too  complaisant  to  defend 
themselves.  This  type  of  conduct  is  perfectly  natural 
and  instinctive,  and  in  its  free  and  unrestricted  operation 
it  probably  fulfills  at  times  an  important  educative  func- 
tion by  acquainting  the  timid  and  the  weak  with  the 


152  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

necessity  of  standing  up  for  their  rights.  In  practice, 
however,  its  virtues  are  seldom  realized;  the  weak  be- 
come weaker,  the  cowards  more  cowardly,  and  the  strong 
more  arrogant  and  overbearing,  —  precisely  as  "  nature  " 
seems  to  have  intended.  In  any  case,  whether  or  not 
the  practices  have  the  sanction  of  natural  law,  they  are 
thoroughly  inconsistent  with  the  "  live  and  let  live  " 
ideal  of  civilized  society  —  which  overrides  and  counter- 
vails natural  law  at  more  than  one  point.  In  the  school, 
the  weak  must  be  protected,  and  even  the  cowards  can- 
not be  forced  to  fight! 

Petty  theft  is  so  common  in  some  schools  that  teachers 
and  principals  are  almost  driven  to  lose  their  faith  in 
human  nature.  Almost  every  high  school  principal  who 
has  had  under  his  control  a  large  and  cosmopolitan 
group  of  adolescents  can  relate  instances  of  pilfering 
that  are  complicated  by  innumerable  factors,  —  poverty, 
emulation,  jealousy,  simple  greed,  avarice,  and  the  like, 
—  revealing  themselves  in  an  apparently  uncontrollable 
form.  Pencils,  books,  hats,  jackets,  ribbons,  pocket 
books  and  their  contents  disappear  as  if  by  magic  or 
miracle.  Locker  systems  are  a  necessary  part  of  the 
equipment  of  the  modern  American  high  school.  And 
the  pathetic  element  enters  when  the  culprits  are  detected 
and  their  motives  investigated.  It  seems  hard  to 
punish  boys  and  girls  when  the  temptation  to  the  offense 
is  often  so  great,  and  when  the  home  conditions  stimu- 
late anything  but  a  sense  of  moral  responsibility.  These 
are  delicate  situations  and  demand  delicate  treatment, 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  153 

for  it  is  usually  true  that  the  severest  punishment  is  to 
publish  the  offense  and  the  offender  before  the  whole 
school,  and  to  subject  the  culprit  to  the  most  thoroughly 
degrading  type  of  experience,  —  the  condemning  scorn 
of  his  fellows.  While  this  treatment  may  be  demanded 
at  times,  it  is  the  writer's  belief  that  something  less 
drastic  will  usually  be  the  better  policy.  Here  it  is  the 
individual  himself  who  is  primarily  the  object  of  all 
punitive  measures.  It  is  his  reform  that  is  chiefly 
sought.  The  situation  is  not  quite  the  same  as  it  is 
when  the  rules  of  the  school  are  openly  evaded  or  when 
offenses  that  are  less  generally  subject  to  social  con- 
demnation are  committed,  for  in  the  latter  case  an 
"  example  "  must  of  necessity  be  made  in  order  to  deter 
others,  and  to  prevent  the  offense  from  becoming  the 
fashion,  while  in  the  former  case,  the  wholesome  reaction 
of  the  great  majority  of  pupils  can  be  safely  trusted. 

The  mutilation  of  school  buildings  and  furniture  is  a 
type  of  misconduct  similar  to  willful  disobedience ;  that 
is,  it  is  likely  to  spread  among  the  group  and  to  be 
looked  upon  by  the  pupils  as  "  legitimate  "  mischief  — 
if  we  may  use  this  term  to  express  the  sharp  distinction 
that  a  boy  or  girl  often  makes  between  something  that 
is  merely  forbidden  and  something  that  is  "  downright 
wrong,"  like  stealing.  Coercive  treatment  in  the  form 
of  swift  and  certain  punishment  is  clearly  indicated 
here  —  supplemented  at  once  and  gradually  supplanted 
by  the  development  among  the  pupils  of  a  feeling  of 
pride  in  the  appearance  of  the  school  and  the  recognition 


154  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

by  them  of  the  wrong  involved  in  injuring  the  property 
of  the  people.  There  is  abundant  opportunity  here  for 
some  concrete  and  effective  lessons  in  civic  ethics,  — 
lessons  that  can  be  taught  successfully  hi  most  cases 
by  an  informal  discussion  in  which  the  pupils  are  grad- 
ually led  to  see  that  vandalism  is  only  another  form 
of  theft.1 

Insolence  and  insult,  especially  to  those  who  by  virtue 
of  age  or  sex  have  been  made  the  especial  objects  of 
chivalric  ideals,  is  another  form  of  misconduct  that 
demands  drastic  treatment.  Here  it  is  sometimes  suffi- 
cient to  let  the  condemnation  of  the  pupil  group  form 
the  punishment,  but,  generally  speaking,  effective  correc- 
tion from  those  in  authority  is  also  demanded,  and 
demanded  by  the  pupils  themselves.  An  inalienable 
right  of  childhood  is  the  right  to  be  corrected  for  unsocial 
conduct,  and  here  the  misconduct  strikes  against  two 
of  the  most  important  and  precious  ideals  that  civilized 

1  The  casuistic  distinction  which  boys  (and  sometimes  men)  make 
between  the  property  of  individuals  and  the  property  of  corporations 
or  of  the  state,  lies  at  the  basis  of  much  of  the  vandalism  and  of  the  theft 
of  public  property  in  schools.  The  writer  recalls  in  this  connection  his 
own  participation  as  a  youth  in  a  system  of  student  self-government  in 
a  state  institution.  The  "penal  code"  of  the  student  body  was  written 
out  in  the  form  of  laws,  each  law  having  attached  to  it  the  kind  and 
amount  of  the  penalty  that  its  violation  would  involve.  For  theft  from 
fellow  students,  the  penalty  was  expulsion ;  for  theft  from  the  state,  the 
penalty  was  five  black  marks  —  fifteen  of  these  being  equivalent  to 
expulsion.  Thus  in  a  direct  and  unequivocal  way,  an  offense  against 
private  property  was  adjudged  to  be  three  times  as  culpable  as  an  offense 
against  public  property!  Excellent  suggestions  as  to  the  method  of 
setting  pupils  right  on  questions  of  this  sort  will  be  found  in  an  article 
by  F.  C.  Sharp  and  H.  Neumann,  School  Review,  April,  1912. 


COERCIVE    MEASURES  1 55 

society  has  slowly  and  gradually  evolved,  —  the  ideals 
of  respect  for  age  and  respect  for  womanhood. 

The  writer  once  listened  to  an  address  on  discipline  given 
by  a  superintendent  of  schools  to  a  group  of  teachers  in  an 
institute.  The  theme  running  through  the  address  was  an 
appeal  to  the  teachers  not  to  take  too  seriously  the  misbe- 
havior of  their  pupils,  —  dangerous  advice  unless  carefully 
given.  The  terrible  results  following  from  correcting  boys 
for  offenses  against  order  and  decency  were  vividly  painted, 
and  when  the  results  could  not  be  adequately  portrayed,  the 
speaker  took  refuge  in  ridicule  and  sarcasm.  Among  the 
"cases"  cited,  the  following  is  typical  of  the  philosophy  of 
discipline  held  by  this  guardian  of  the  coming  generation. 
One  of  his  teachers  came  to  him  greatly  agitated,  and  de- 
manded that  he  punish  at  once  two  boys  who  had  insulted 
her.  They  were  not  her  own  pupils.  They  were  not  even 
members  of  the  school  in  which  she  served,  but  of  a  neigh- 
boring school.  It  seems  that  these  two  lads,  however,  knew 
this  teacher  by  name  and  saw  her  frequently.  She  chanced 
to  have  auburn  hair,  and  the  boys  chanced  to  have,  on  this 
particular  occasion,  a  supply  of  red  crayon.  The  association 
was  inevitable  and  the  impulse  spontaneous.  Going  to  the 
schoolhouse  where  this  teacher  served,  they  wrote  her  name 
(with  a  certain  nickname  appended)  in  red  crayon  on  the 
steps,  and  then  passing  down  the  side  walk  through  several 
blocks  repeated  the  operation  at  short  intervals  on  the  con- 
crete sidewalk,  ending  with  a  particularly  ambitious  flourish 
in  front  of  her  boarding  place.  When  the  teacher  left  the 
school,  she  was  greeted  with  this  little  personal  tribute  at 
intervals  all  the  way  home.  What  mortification  she  suffered 
may  be  guessed.  She  discovered  who  had  subjected  her  to 
this  humiliating  experience,  and  reported  the  culprits  at  once 
to  the  superintendent,  asking  that  he  punish  the  two  boys. 


156  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

The  superintendent  laughed  at  her  (by  his  own  statement, 
in  which  he  even  expressed  great  pride  that  he  had  not  let 
his  anger  be  aroused  by  this  occurrence  !).  He  told  her  that 
"boys  would  be  boys,"  that  they  had  found  the  crayon  and 
had  made  the  association  very  cleverly  with  her  hair,  and  that 
the  best  thing  for  her  to  do  was  to  take  it  as  a  good  joke. 

Personally,  while  we  have  pinned  our  faith  to  the  virtues 
of  the  "objective  attitude,"  we  recognize  that  there  are  occa- 
sions when,  for  the  benefit  of  the  offender  if  for  no  other  rea- 
son, offenses  must  be  taken  personally.  This  is  a  case  in 
point.  Spencer's  doctrine  of  natural  punishments  has  a 
distinct  place  here  —  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  add  what  the 
"natural"  punishment  for  an  offense  of  this  kind  is.  In- 
stinct may  well  be  trusted  in  some  situations. 

There  are  some  schools  in  our  city  systems  from  which 
or  to  which  the  teachers  cannot  pass  through  neighbor- 
ing streets  without  being  hooted  at  and  "  called  names," 
and  often  for  no  reason  except  that  their  names  are  known 
to  all  of  the  children  of  the  locality.  This  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  "  slum  "  districts ;  in  some  cities,  the  practice 
is  even  more  common  in  the  residence  districts  inhabited 
by  wealthy  families.  We  cannot  agree  that  teachers 
should  be  expected  to  "  stand  "  this  kind  of  treatment 
uncomplainingly.  It  is,  in  effect,  an  affront  to  the  serv- 
ice and  should  be  treated  as  such.  It  makes  teachers 
self-conscious,  discourages  them  with  their  profession 
and  discourages  others  from  entering  its  ranks.  //  is  as 
distinctly  against  public  policy  as  a  similar  treatment  of 
tlie  police  would  be  if  this  were  tolerated.  And  the  best 
way  to  discourage  the  practice,  we  believe,  if  complaint 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  157 

to  parents  is  unavailing,  is  to  appeal  to  the  police  to  abate 
it  as  a  nuisance.  A  teacher's  feelings  and  a  teacher's 
self-respect  should  be  as  immune  from  violation  as  is 
his  or  her  private  property.  Simply  because  the  busi- 
ness of  teaching  makes  one's  name  known  to  the  undis- 
ciplined children  of  the  community,  one  should  not  be 
asked  to  accept  treatment  against  which  other  citizens 
may  claim  adequate  protection.  Many  teachers,  how- 
ever, suffer  in  silence,  preferring  to  accept  the  humilia- 
tion rather  than  have  it  appear  that  their  school  work 
and  the  requirements  that  they  have  laid  upon  their 
pupils  have  made  them  "  unpopular  "  and  thus  brought 
derision  and  insult  by  the  way  of  revenge.  This  is  an 
attitude  which,  we  fear,  is  all  too  common  in  some 
communities,  and  an  attitude  that  is  distinctly  encour  aged 
by  such  perverted  and  socially  dangerous  ideas  anr  ideals 
of  discipline  as  those  of  the  superintendent  who  treated 
insults  offered  to  his  teachers  as  "good  jokes." 

Interference  from  Without,  a  Handicap  t<  Effective 
Discipline.  —  The  troubles  that  arise  from  Jie  attempt 
of  individual  citizens,  acting  in  a  private  capacity,  to 
dictate  the  policies  of  educational  administration  is  one 
of  the  heavy  prices  that  must  be  paid  ir*  America  for  the 
advantages  that  attach  to  the  local  control  of  schools ; 
and  in  no  phase  of  administration  are  these  troubles 
more  acute  than  in  connection  wit1'  disciplinary  problems. 
The  teacher  or  the  principal  nr  ist  see  to  it  that  justice 
is  done  to  all  and  especially  that  the  rights  of  the  ma- 
jority are  not  invaded  or  invalidated  by  the  whims  and 


1 58  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

caprice  of  the  influential  few,  but  this  often  means  that 
disagreeable  situations  must  be  faced  and  rather  serious 
risks  of  engendering  personal  enmity  must  be  incurred .  It 
is  in  crises  of  this  type  that  the  true  mettle  of  the  teacher 
or  the  superintendent  is  most  clearly  revealed.  It  is, 
indeed,  difficult  to  strike  the  right  balance,  —  to  prevent 
firmness  from  becoming  tactlessness  and  to  prevent  tact 
and  diplomacy  from  becoming  a  ready  acceptance  of 
and  acquiescence  in  "  bulldozing "  threats.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  general  type  of  action  that  is  thoroughly 
consistent  with  professional  ethics,  the  following  in- 
stance may  be  cited : 1 

"...  John  N.  Davis  is  one  of  the  men  in  the  teaching 
proi  ^ssion  of  whom  we  should  all  be  proud.  And  this  is  the 
reaso  \ : 

11 1  ro  years  ago,  John  stepped  over  the  border  into  Menom- 
inee,  M  chigan,  to  teach  school.  Things  went  along  nicely 
there  umU  this  fall,  when  the  favored  son  of  the  president  of 
John's  sci  ~>ol  board  defied  the  rules  of  the  school  by  smoking 
cigarettes  en  the  playground.  Mr.  Davis  took  the  matter 
up  with  the  boy's  father,  but  the  latter  .  .  .  stoutly  con- 
tended that  the  boy  should  be  readmitted  to  school,  from 
which  he  had  b^en  suspended,  and  practically  without  any 
conditions.  Unfortunately  for  this  president  of  the  school 
board,  JohnN.  Da^is  stood  'pat,'  and  politely  informed  him 
that,  should  the  boy  return,  there  would  not  be  room  enough 
for  both  of  them  in  the  same  school  building.  The  board 
met,  and  before  their  resolution  was  cold  they  had  the  un- 
qualified resignation  of  Schoolmaster  Davis,  followed  im- 
mediately by  the  entire  school  faculty. 

1  From  the  Wisconsin  Journal  of  Eduction,  December,  1913,  p.  278. 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  159 

"Then  there  was  something  doing !  The  people  of  the 
city  awoke  to  the  realization  of  the  true  condition  of  affairs 
and  compelled  the  school  board  to  meet  and  rescind  their 
action,  which  they  did,  and  a  resolution  was  passed  .  .  . 
giving  Mr.  Davis  full  power  and  unqualified  authority  to  dis- 
cipline the  school  according  to  his  own  ideas." 

It  is  when  one  is  face  to  face  with  difficulties  of  this 
sort  that  one  is  tempted  to  lose  faith  in  the  virtues  of 
democracy  and  especially  of  local  self-government. 
But  the  experience  just  recounted  points  to  the  funda- 
mental fact  upon  which  our  faith  in  democracy  and  in 
self-government  must  always  rest :  when  the  "  people  " 
really  understand  the  situation,  their  collective  judgment 
can  be  safely  trusted,  especially  if  a  moral  issue  is  in- 
volved. "  Be  sure  you  are  right  and  then  go  ahead  " 
may  be  platitudinous  advice,  but  it  is  a  golden  help  in 
time  of  trouble.  If  it  is  necessary  to  go  before  the  people, 
one  need  not  fear,  if  one's  issue  is  a  moral  issue ;  to  which, 
perhaps,  one  might  add  a  precept  of  political  strategy : 
Where  publicity  is  inevitable,  be  sure  to  get  to  the  public 
first. 

The  Principle  of  Individual  Treatment.  —  While  it 
is  true  that  some  offenses  against  school  discipline  are 
collective  in  their  nature,  and  demand  collective  treat- 
ment and  collective  reparation,1  these  are  less  frequent 
in  their  occurrence  than  the  offenses  that  are  purely 
individual,  and  subject  to  individual  treatment.  Indeed, 
the  young  teacher  will  do  well  to  avoid  attributing 

1  For  example,  the  case  cited  on  pp.  99  ff. 


l6o  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

disorder  to  the  class  as  a  whole,  —  and  it  will  take  some 
little  self-control  not  to  do  this.  The  first  tendency  will 
undoubtedly  be  to  attempt  to  check  disorder  by  an 
impersonal  "  scolding  "  of  the  class  as  a  whole.  The 
practice  is  commonly  weak  and  ineffective,  only  serving 
to  intensify  the  unfortunate  conditions. 

One  of  the  clearest  precepts  of  class  management, 
then,  is  to  locate  responsibility  in  the  individual  offender, 
and  deal  with  him  as  an  individual.  Other  offenders 
may  continue  their  disturbance  while  the  teacher  is  en- 
gaged with  the  one  who  has  been  detected.  These  can 
be  taken  in  their  turn.  If,  however,  the  class  is  con- 
demned indiscriminately,  the  very  fact  of  group  coopera- 
tion in  mischief  is,  as  it  were,  officially  recognized,  and 
disastrous  consequences  in  the  way  of  rebellion  or  per- 
manent disaffection  may  result. 

The  supervision  of  study  and  assembly  rooms  not  in- 
frequently involves  a  succession  of  irritating  disciplinary 
conditions.  The  room,  perhaps,  has  been  placed  in 
charge  of  a  beginner  who  has  yet  to  learn  the  art  of  con- 
trol. The  pupils  naturally  seize  the  opportunity  for 
diversion.  A  low  humming  is  heard  throughout  the  room, 
not  the  lauded  "  hum  of  industry  "  but  the  hum  of  mis- 
chief. The  pupils  seem  intent  upon  their  work,  and  are 
appropriately  shocked  and  surprised,  when  the  super- 
visor announces  that  the  humming  must  stop.  Or  a 
stealthy  shuffling  of  feet  disturbs  first  this  quarter  of  the 
room  and  then  another  quarter,  followed  by  the  same 
expressions  of  injured  innocence  when  its  abatement 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  l6l 

is  demanded.  To  pound  on  the  desk,  lose  one's  temper 
and  give  vent  to  noisy  disapproval  are  forms  of  treatment 
to  be  carefully  avoided  here.  Find  one  offender,  then 
another,  and  another  if  necessary,  and  deal  with  each  as 
an  individual.  Sometimes  one  will  have  to  wait  for 
the  opportunity,  but  waiting  is  vastly  better  than  a  pre- 
mature explosion.  Sneaking  mischief  of  this  sort  justi- 
fies rather  severe  treatment,  for  its  very  existence  in  a 
form  that  is  concealed  and  difficult  to  uncover  imposes 
a  task  upon  the  teacher  that  may  use  up  far  more  time 
and  energy  than  a  much  more  serious  offense,  and  it  is 
better  to  "  make  an  example  "  of  one  or  two  offenders 
through  suspension  than  to  risk  a  continuance  of  the  dis- 
turbance. 

The  general  principle  of  individual  treatment  should 
not,  however,  preclude  warnings  or  suggestions  given 
to  the  group  as  a  whole.  Even  under  the  conditions  just 
described,  a  good-natured  appeal  to  have  the  disturbance 
stopped  may  be  all  that  is  necessary,  and  this  expedient 
should  certainly  be  tried.  What  is  to  be  avoided  is  an 
attempt  to  punish  the  group  collectively  or  indiscrimi- 
nately, either  by  scolding,  by  threatening,  or  by  retain- 
ing all  of  the  pupils  after  hours. 

As  a  rule,  also,  it  is  well  not  to  rebuke  an  individual 
pupil  by  name  in  the  presence  of  the  class.  He  should 
be  spoken  to  privately,  the  teacher  going  to  his  seat  or 
calling  him  to  the  desk  or  detaining  him  for  a  moment 
after  the  others  have  left.  To  rebuke  publicly  may 
make  a  hero  of  the  offender  and  consequently  render 


1 62  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

much  more  difficult  a  quelling  of  the  disorder.  There 
are  exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  but  it  is,  we  believe, 
a  safe  rule  for  the  beginner  to  follow.  To  quote  again 
from  Professor  Phelps : 

"When  there  is  a  little  plague  spot  of  irruption  in  the 
classroom,  when  there  is  individual  disorder  or  inattention, 
it  is  better  to  speak  to  the  class  as  a  whole,  rather  than  to 
single  out  one  person  by  name.  And  if  there  is  one  boy  or 
girl  who  persists  in  repeated  offenses  of  this  nature,  then  it 
is  well  to  keep  the  culprit  a  moment  after  class,  and,  after 
every  one  has  gone  out,  to  talk  very  frankly,  very  earnestly, 
but  never  angrily  or  sarcastically  with  him.  Sometimes  this 
method  will  result  not  only  in  complete  reformation,  but  in 
transforming  the  individual  from  a  leader  of  disturbance  into 
an  influence  for  good  order.  Very  few  boys  and  girls  can 
resist  a  quiet,  personal  talk."  l 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  What  is  the  relation  of  coercive  methods  of  school 
discipline  to  the  methods  discussed  in  preceding  chapters? 
Why  are  the  latter  methods  to  be  preferred  where  it  is  pos- 
sible to  apply  them  effectively? 

2.  "Really  effective  discipline  is  rarely  expressed;   it  is 
rather  felt  by  every  one  under  its  control."    This  statement 
is  made  by  Professor  O'Shea  in  his  Everyday  Problems  in 
Teaching.    What  steps  would  you  take  to  insure  this  end? 
Why  is  a  constant  "show"  of  power  and  authority  incon- 
sistent with  good  discipline? 

3.  What  steps  would  you  take  in  reducing  a  spoiled  or 
indulged  school  to  a  regimen  of  law  and  order? 

1  W.  L.  Phelps,  Teaching  in  School  and  College,  p.  27. 


COERCIVE   MEASURES  163 

4.  List  the  more  important  characteristic  symptoms  of  a 
school  in  rebellion.    Discuss  the  advisability  of  treating  with 
the  leaders  as  a  basis  for  suppressing  or  abating  a  rebellion 
in  school. 

5.  How  is  willful  disobedience  to  be  distinguished  from 
thoughtless  or  unintentional  misconduct?    How  would  you 
deal  with  a  pupil  who  pleaded  in  extenuation  of  his  mis- 
behavior that  he  "did  not  intend  to  do  anything  wrong"? 

6.  "  The  greatness  of  a  fault  depends  partly  on  the  nature 
of  the  person  against  whom  it  is  committed,  partly  upon 
the  extent  of  its  consequences ;  its  pardonableness,  humanly 
speaking,  on  the  degree  of  temptation  to  it."     (Ruskin: 
Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture.)    How  would  you  apply  this 
principle  to  the  faults  of  school  children?    Is  it  possible  to 
recognize  and  appreciate  the  temptation  to  which  the  in- 
dividual has  been  subjected  and  still  recognize  the  necessity 
for  correction  ? 


CHAPTER  X 

< 

COERCION  THROUGH  REWARDS  AND  PENALTIES 

IT  is  through  the  agency  of  rewards  and  penalties  that 
coercive  measures  are  commonly  made  effective  both  in 
civil  government  and  in  school  government. 

The  Psychology  of  Rewards  and  Penalties.  —  The 
principle  underlying  the  employment  of  rewards  and 
penalties  is  very  simple.  If  a  certain  kind  of  behavior 
invariably  brings  an  unpleasant  consequence,  this  type 
of  behavior  will  tend  to  be  repressed  or  inhibited ;  if, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  certain  type  of  behavior  invariably 
brings  pleasant  consequences,  it  will  be  confirmed  and 
repeated.  "  Learning  "  is  always  a  process  of  modify- 
ing behavior  or  conduct,  and  the  principle  just  formu- 
lated lies  at  the  basis  of  the  learning  process.  "  Teach- 
ing "  is  a  process  of  inducing  others  to  "  learn,"  and  the 
most  primitive  type  of  teaching  is  to  arrange  the  experi- 
ences of  the  learner  in  such  a  way  that  desirable  modes 
of  conduct  will  result  pleasantly,  and  undesirable  modes 
of  conduct  unpleasantly. 

The  readiness  or  celerity  with  which  behavior  is 
modified  under  the  stimulus  of  pleasant  or  unpleasant  con- 
sequences is  recognized  among  psychologists  as  a  most 
important  index  of  intelligence.  Among  the  lower 

164 


REWARDS   AND   PENALTIES  165 

forms  of  life,  behavior  is  likely  to  be  modified  very  slowly ; 
in  the  higher  forms  of  life,  a  single  unpleasant  experience 
may  permanently  change  conduct  with  reference  to  the 
situation  in  question.  Upon  the  higher  levels  of  intelli- 
gence, too,  the  immediate  consequences  of  different  types 
of  conduct  become  much  less  significant  than  the  remote 
consequences.  With  the  ability  to  anticipate  the  future 
and  to  feel  in  imagination  what  the  remote  consequences 
will  be,  types  of  behavior  that  are  immediately  unpleasant 
may  be  undergone  willingly  for  the  sake  of  what  the  future 
will  bring.  In  the  very  highest  types  of  conduct,  the  in- 
dividual is  even  able  to  read  his  own  pleasure  and  his 
own  pain  very  largely  out  of  the  problem,  and  to  base 
his  acts  upon  the  future  good  of  others.  In  general, 
however,  this  level  of  conduct  is  relatively  uncommon, 
although  it  is,  naturally  enough,  an  ideal  to  which  society 
gives  the  most  powerful  sanctions  because  it  involves 
a  conscious  and  willing  sacrifice  of  the  individual  for  the 
social  good. 

The  Relative  Efficiency  of  Pleasant  and  Unpleasant 
Consequences.  —  The  school,  however,  deals  primarily 
with  the  immature  mind  of  childhood  and  here  the  im- 
mediate consequences  rather  than  the  remote  conse- 
quences are  the  determining  factors  hi  conduct.  The 
question  at  once  arises,  Are  pleasant  consequences 
(rewards)  more  effective  in  modifying  conduct  than 
unpleasant  consequences  (penalties)?  From  the  point 
of  view  of  psychological  theory,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
of  the  answer  to  this  question.  The  discipline  of  the 


1 66  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

"  unpleasant "  or  the  "  disagreeable  "  undoubtedly 
teaches  its  lessons  with  greater  certainty  and  celerity 
than  the  discipline  of  the  "  pleasant  "  or  the  "  agree- 
able." This  has  been  fairly  well  demonstrated  in  the 
experimental  study  of  animal  psychology.  It  has  been 
found,  for  example,  that  when  animals  are  being  taught 
certain  tricks,  the  infliction  of  a  slight  pain  for  every 
failure  to  make  the  right  movement  is  more  effective 
than  depending  simply  on  giving  a  reward  (in  the  form, 
perhaps,  of  a  lump  of  sugar)  for  every  success.  Obvi- 
ously, the  most  effective  procedure  employs  both  the 
pleasant  and  the  unpleasant  consequence.  The  reason 
for  the  greater  efficiency  of  the  unpleasant,  if  only  one 
is  used,  however,  reveals  some  rather  important  lessons 
for  education.  Yerkes  says  that  the  effectiveness  of  the 
pleasant  depends  upon  the  happy  cooperation  of  a 
number  of  conditions  that  are  not  always  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  trainer.  If,  for  example,  one  depends  upon 
the  attractiveness  of  a  food  reward  in  training  an  animal, 
the  efficiency  of  the  reward  will  depend  upon  whether 
the  animal  is  hungry.  The  unpleasant  consequence,  how- 
ever, operates  with  much  greater  certainty  and  is  amen- 
able to  a  much  finer  measure  of  control  by  the  trainer.1 
That  a  similar  condition  operates  in  human  education 
is  obvious.  The  virtues  of  a  reward  are  realized  only 
when  the  individual  very  greatly  desires  the  reward, 
and  this  desire  varies  with  different  individuals  and  at 
different  times  with  the  same  individual.  Penalties, 

1  Cf.  R.  M.  Yerkes,  The  Dancing  Mouse,  New  York,  1907,  pp.  98  f. 


REWARDS   AND   PENALTIES  167 

however,  operate  with  much  greater  constancy  and  can 
be  applied  with  approximately  the  same  unpleasant 
results  to  all  individuals,  —  although  that  penalties 
vary  somewhat  in  their  potency  from  individual  to  in- 
dividual and  from  time  to  time  is  clear  enough. 

The  Discipline  of  the  Disagreeable  in  Education.— 
In  solving  the  problem  of  school  discipline,  direct  re- 
liance must  be  placed  upon  penalties  and  indirect  re- 
liance upon  rewards.  This  somewhat  cryptic  sentence 
really  involves  an  educational  principle  of  large  impor- 
tance. It  is  always  bad  policy  in  school  discipline  to  bribe 
children  to  be  good  through  offering  direct  and  unequivocal 
rewards  for  good  behavior.  The  "  rewards  of  virtue " 
must  come  in  school,  as  in  life,  through  indirect  channels. 
Society  places  only  one  reward  on  mere  "  goodness  " 
(that  is,  on  negative  morality  or  mere  avoidance  of  evil) 
and  that  reward  is  freedom  from  penalties  for  being  bad ! 
Positive  virtue  —  direct  and  self-sacrificing  effort  for 
the  social  welfare  —  may  bring  large  rewards  in  adult 
life  and  should  certainly  bring  a  reward  of  some  sort  in 
school.  But  the  responsibility  for  merely  avoiding  evil 
should  rest  upon  the  individual,  and  the  only  effective 
method  of  insuring  this  end  is  to  penalize  evil. 

For  individual  and  group  infractions  of  the  necessary 
rules  and  restrictions  of  the  school,  therefore,  penalties 
of  one  sort  or  another  must  be  exacted.  Sometimes  the 
penalty  will  itself  attach  to  the  misdeed,  —  as  when,  for 
example,  the  silent  disapproval  of  the  group  follows  the 
misdeed.  But  in  most  instances  (and  particularly  in 


1 68  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  "  unruly  "  school  which  we  have  been  discussing) 
the  penalty  must  be  imposed  by  the  teacher. 

Conditions  that  make  Penalties  Effective.  —  A  penalty 
must  usually  fulfill  two  functions:  (i)  it  must  associate 
itself  in  the  pupil's  mind  with  the  undesirable  act,  and  so 
serve  to  deter  him  from  a  repetition  of  the  act;  and 
(2)  it  must  deter  others  from  similar  misdeeds,..  The 
first  of  these  conditions  requires  that  the  penalty  have 
an  effective  "  sting,"  and  that  it  be  readily  and  un- 
equivocally associable  with  the  misdeed  and  so  far  as 
possible  with  nothing  else.  That  is,  the  association  of 
the  "  sting  "  of  the  penalty  with  acts  that  are  desirable 
or  with  school  work  in  general  is  obviously  to  be  avoided. 
The  conditions  under  which  a  penalty  will  act  as  a 
deterrent  to  others  are  much  more  complicated,  —  so 
complicated,  indeed,  that  it  is  impossible  to  lay  down 
any  general  principles  that  will  govern  each  particular 
case.  A  great  deal,  if  not  everything,  depends  upon  the 
social  prejudice  that  has  grown  up  against  the  penalty. 

But  this  very  "social  prejudice"  which  makes  certain 
penalties  very  effective  as  deterrents,  operates  as  well  to 
preclude  their  employment.  In  the  following  chapter 
we  shall  trace  the  evolution  of  punishment,  and  point 
out  how  and  why  certain  penalties  have  come  to  be  so 
repugnant  as  to  be  completely  abandoned  by  civilized 
society. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

i.  In  your  own  experience,  has  the  fear  of  painful  con- 
sequences or  the  anticipation  of  pleasurable  consequences 


REWARDS   AND   PENALTIES  169 

been  the  more  effective  incentive  for  leaving  undone  the 
things  that  you  wished  to  do  and  for  doing  the  tasks  that 
you  did  not  wish  to  do  ?  Have  you  noticed  in  any  case  an 
alternation  between  the  fear  of  the  unpleasant  and  the  hope 
of  the  pleasant?  (Take,  for  example,  working  on  an  un- 
attractive lesson :  is  the  fear  of  failing  in  class  or  the  hope 
of  making  a  good  record  or  a  high  "mark"  the  more  effective 
stimulus  ?)  Cite  other  cases. 

2.  Under  what  conditions  will  the  hope  of  reward  prove 
an  effective  incentive?    Do  you  agree  with  the  statement 
that  unpleasant  consequences  operate  with  more  certainty 
than  pleasant  consequences?     Can  you  think  of  additional 
reasons  why  the  unpleasant  may  be  the  more  effective? 

3.  What  is  the  danger  of  inflicting  the  same  kind  of 
punishment  for  misconduct  on  the  one  hand  and  for  the 
failure  of  the  pupil  to  "get  his  lessons"  on  the  other  hand? 
(For  example,  in  the  old-time  school,  pupils  were  whipped 
indiscriminately  for  mischief  and  for  unwillingness  or  in- 
ability to  learn  quickly  and  effectively.) 

4.  If  a  punishment  to  be  fully  effective  must  associate 
itself  in  the  pupil's  mind  with  the  misdeed,  how  would  you 
justify  delayed  punishments?     (Delay  that  is  not  too  pro- 
tracted may  certainly  be  justified  under  some  conditions.) 

5.  Do  you  agree  that  regular  school  tasks  should  not  be 
employed  as  penalties  for  misconduct?    If  you  agree  with 
this  as  a  general  principle,  can  you  justify  exceptions,  and  if 
so  under  what  conditions  ? 


CHAPTER  XI 

CORPORAL  PUNISHMENT  AND  THE  REACTION 
AGAINST  IT 

IN  the  cases  cited  in  the  preceding  chapter  occasional 
reference  was  made  to  the  infliction  of  corporal  punish- 
ment. Where  direct,  coercive  measures  are  adopted, 
the  employment  of  physical  coercion  is  naturally  first 
suggested.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  use  of 
actual  physical  force  in  American  schools  is  becoming  less 
and  less  frequent,  and  the  time  is  perhaps  not  far  in  the 
future  when  it  will  be  very  rare.  At  the  same  time,  it  is 
hardly  likely  that  a  means  of  discipline  which  has  been 
so  well-nigh  universal  in  the  past,  and  which  has  had  the 
sanction  of  human  experience  from  time  immemorial,  will 
ever  entirely  lose  its  place.  Like  so  many  of  the  other 
forces  that  have  operated  in  the  evolution  of  the  social 
structure,  physical  coercion  will  come  to  "  function  " 
more  and  more  in  a11  symbolic  "  rather  than  in  an  "  actual  " 
way.  That  is  to  say,  the  possibility  of  physical  coercion 
or  of  physical  punishment  will  continue  to  be  a  force  in 
life.  Just  as  the  state  can  compel  the  individual  to  live 
in  accordance  with  certain  restrictions,  so  the  school 
can  compel  the  pupil ;  but  just  as  the  state  when  it  has 
attained  a  stable  and  permanent  form  may  safely  depend 

170 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  171 

upon  the  possibility  of  coercion  to  work  the  desired 
result,  so  the  school,  when  the  proper  degree  of  stability 
in  its  organization  has  been  obtained,  may  rest  fairly 
secure  in  the  same  vicarious  force.  It  is  in  new  com- 
munities where  law  and  order  are  struggling  with  anti- 
social forces  that  the  law  must  be  administered  with 
severity  and  rigor.  And  in  the  school  that  is  decadent  or 
rebellious,  or  in  the  school  that  is  not  taken  seriously  by 
the  community  or  by  the  pupils,  a  similar  necessity 
exists. 

Why  Actual  Physical  Coercion  is  Disappearing.  — The 
measure  in  which  the  possibility  of  coercion  does  away 
with  the  fact  of  coercion  is  clearly  revealed  in  some  of  the 
larger  city  school  systems  in  which  corporal  punishment 
is  practically  unknown.  Here  the  very  magnitude  of 
the  school  organization,  its  visible  expression  in  massive 
buildings  and  costly  equipment,  the  vast  army  of  pupils 
and  teachers  that  its  buildings  -house,  all  combine  to 
give  an  impression  of  power  and  strength  which  even  a 
child  can  feel.  That  it  is  altogether  wholesome  for  one 
to  be  conscious  of  one's  own  impotence  in  the  face  of 
overwhelming  odds  may  perhaps  be  denied  by  the  radical 
individualist;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  effective 
government  depends  largely  upon  this  factor ;  and  if  the 
"  overwhelming  odds  "  represent  clearly  and  unequivo- 
cally the  collective  will  of  the  people,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  feeling  of  impotence  is  salutary  and  whole- 
some. Without  it  the  social  fabric  would  quickly 
crumble. 


172  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

A  second  reason  why  the  necessity  for  actual  physical 
coercion  is  disappearing  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
confirmed  recalcitrants  —  the  troublesome  incorrigibles 
—  are  being  turned  over  to  special  agencies  for  segrega- 
tion, treatment,  and,  if  possible,  reform.  This  tends 
to  relieve  the  school  of  those  abnormal  individuals  who 
in  the  interests  of  the  majority,  would  otherwise  be  the 
constant  objects  of  coercive  measures.  It  is,  however, 
only  in  the  larger  cities  that  the  special  schools  and  in- 
stitutions for  incorrigibles  have  been  established;  and 
while  state  institutions  will  receive  very  unruly  boys  and 
girls  from  smaller  communities  upon  commitment  through 
a  process  of  law,  they  cannot,  of  course,  serve  so  effectively 
to  eliminate  the  necessity  for  coercive  measures  in  the 
smaller  schools.  Generally  speaking,  it  is  in  the  schools 
of  the  smaller  communities  that  the  disciplinary  problem 
still  looms  large,  —  not  only  because  these  communities 
cannot  provide  special  schools  for  incorrigibles,  but  also 
because  the  younger  and  more  inexperienced  teachers 
are  more  numerous  here,  and  because  supervision  is 
less  effective. 

A  third  factor  influencing  the  decline  of  physical 
coercion  in  American  schools  has  been  the  gradual  but 
now  almost  complete  feminization  of  the  teaching  force 
in  the  elementary  schools. 

The  fundamental  reason  for  the  decline  of  physical 
correction  and  compulsion  in  education,  however,  must 
be  sought  in  the  changing  attitude  of  the  public  toward 
this  particular  form  of  discipline.  This  change  has  been 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  173 

going  on  gradually  for  a  long  period,  accompanying 
somewhat  tardily  the  general  reaction  against  corporal 
punishment  in  civil  and  military  government. 

The  Reaction  against  Corporal  Punishment.  —  Flog- 
ging was,  until  within  a  hundred  years,  a  universal 
method  of  correction,  not  only  in  dealing  with  children, 
but  also  in  dealing  with  adult  offenders.  Indeed,  the 
supposed  virtues  of  the  rod  were  not  only  held  in  high 
repute  in  connection  with  moral  discipline,  but  were 
sometimes  extolled  as  effective  agencies  in  the  treat- 
ment of  disease.1  Castigation  and  flagellation  have  also 
played  an  important  part  in  religious  discipline.  Ritual- 
istic flagellation  existed  among  the  Jews ;  with  the 
Christians,  the  rod  was  early  used  as  a  means  of  cor- 
rection; and,  with  the  development  of  monasticism, 
voluntary  flogging  came  to  be  a  favorite  means  of  penance. 
The  sect  of  the  Flagellants  originated  in  Italy  in  the 
thirteenth  century  and  flourished  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  the  fervor  for  self-inflicted  punishment  apparently 
growing  with  the  persecution  to  which  the  adherents 
were  at  first  subjected ; 2  the  sect  declined  in»the  fifteenth 

1  In  Constable's  Accounts  of  Great  Staugkton,  Hunts,  the  following 
entry  is  found:    "1690-1,  Pd.  Thomas  Hawkins   for  whipping    two 
people  yt  had  smallpox  —  8  d."     (Cited  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
art.  "Whipping.")     Galen  prescribed  flagellation  for  lean  people  who 
desired  more  adipose  tissue.     Seneca  reports  that  certain  fevers  were 
successfully  dispelled  by  blows,  and  Octavius  Augustus  is  said  to  have 
been  cured  of  rheumatism  by  a  liberal  application  of  the  rod !     (See 
the  curious  compilation  by  W.  M.  Cooper,  A  History  of  the  Rod  in  All 
Countries,  London,  ca.  1867.) 

2  According  to  the  chronicle  of  Albert  of  Strassburg,  two  hundred  of 
these  flagellants  came  from  Schwaben  to  Spira,  under  one  principal  and 


174  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

century,  but  many  of  the  peculiar  practices  were  con- 
tinued, especially  among  the  Jansenists,  and  one  may 
indeed  find  to-day  sporadic  instances  of  flagellation  in 
the  monastic  orders. 

Flogging  as  a  punishment  imposed  for  the  infraction 
of  the  civil  law  was  a  common  practice  in  ancient  Egypt, 
and  among  the  oriental  nations  of  antiquity.  It  held  a 
prominent  place  in  the  Roman  code,  and  passed  from 
Rome  to  the  nations  of  medieval  Europe.  Until  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  was  a  common 
sentence  for  minor  offenses,  the  right  of  a  court  to  impose 
this  punishment  being  recognized  in  England  and 
America  as  a  tenet  of  common  law.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  humanitarian  ideals,  however,  and  under  the 
influence  of  a  changing  conception  of  the  function  of 
punishment,  the  practice  came  to  be  gradually  restricted. 

In  1820,  the  flogging  of  women  offenders  (which  had  been 
a  common  practice  in  preceding  centuries)  was  entirely 
abolished  in  England,  and  during  the  decades  immediately 

two  subordinate  rulers,  whose  commands  they  implicitly  obeyed. 
"  They  were  met  by  crowds  of  people.  Placing  themselves  within  a  circle 
on  the  ground,  they  stripped,  leaving  on  their  bodies  only  a  breech- 
cloth.  They  then  walked  with  arms  outstretched  like  a  cross  round  and 
round  the  circle  for  a  time,  finally  prostrating  themselves  on  the  ground. 
They  soon  after  rose,  each  striking  his  neighbor  with  a  scourge,  armed 
with  knots  and  four  iron  points,  regulating  their  blows  by  the  singing 
of  psalms.  At  a  certain  signal  the  discipline  ceased,  and  they  threw 
themselves  first  on  their  knees,  then  flat  on  the  ground,  groaning  and 
sobbing.  On  rising  the  leader  gave  them  a  short  address,  exhorting 
them  to  implore  the  mercy  of  God  upon  their  benefactors  and  enemies. 
.  .  .  This  was  followed  by  another  prostration,  and  then  another 
discipline.  ..."  (Cited  by  Cooper,  op.  cit.,  pp.  104  f.) 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  175 

following,  many  of  the  other  abuses  which  had  grown  up  under 
the  old  practice  were  corrected.  In  England  to-day,  there 
are  offenses  that  may  be  punished  by  flogging,  but  the  penalty 
is  inflicted  in  relatively  few  cases.  In  the  United  States, 
corporal  punishment  is  not  recognized  by  the  Federal  law,1 
although  in  at  least  two  states  it  is  still  permissible  to  inflict 
it  for  certain  offenses,  —  notably  wife  beating. 

During  the  past  century,  also,  the  practice  of  inflicting 
corporal  punishment  has  been  almost  entirely  abandoned 
as  a  means  of  military  and  naval  discipline,  —  although 
here,  as  in  the  case  of  corporal  punishment  in  the  school 
and  the  home,  the  reform  has  only  tardily  followed  the 
abolition  of  the  rod  as  a  civil  penalty.2  In  the  merchant 
marine,  corporal  punishment  declined  with  other  cruel 
practices  during  the  latter  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  Decline  of  Corporal  Punishment  in  the  School.  — 
From  the  earliest  days  of  formal  education  until  within  a 
very  few  decades  corporal  punishment  has  had  an  im- 
portant place  in  schools  of  all  types  and  grades,  although 
from  very  early  times,  also,  there  have  been  vigorous 

1  But  the  Eighth  Amendment  of  the  Federal   constitution,  which 
forbids  the  employment  of  "cruel  and  unusual  punishments,"  has  been 
held  not  to  apply  to  corporal  punishment  as  the  term  is  commonly 
understood.      (Bishop,  American  Criminal  Law,  8th  ed.,  Sect.  947.) 

2  The  progress  of  the  movement  against  corporal  punishment  is 
perhaps  most  clearly  seen  in  the  statistics  presented  by  Cooper  (op.  cit., 
P-  355)  referring  to  the  decreasing  proportion  of  flogging  sentences 
imposed  by  courts  martial  in  the  British  army.     From  1821  to  1823, 
one  half  of  all  of  the  sentences  specified  corporal  punishment;    from 
1825  to  1828,  this  proportion  was  reduced  to  one  in  five;   by  1832,  it 
had  reached  one  in  six ;  in  1865,  it  had  been  reduced  to  one  in  fifty-four. 


176  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

protests  against  its  employment  and  innumerable  ex- 
pressions of  skepticism  as  to  its  efficacy.  Quintilian 
denounced  it  as  degrading;  Plutarch  characterized  it 
as  a  method  of  "  incitement  far  more  suitable  to  slaves 
than  to  the  free,  on  whom  [it]  can  produce  no  other 
effect  than  to  induce  torpor  of  mind  and  disgust  for 
exertion " ;  Ascham  was  inspired  by  the  barbarous 
methods  of  school  punishment  current  in  his  time  to 
write  The  Scholemaster  (published  after  his  death  in 
1 568) ;  Locke  held  that  severe  punishment  does  but 
little  good  and  often  very  great  harm  in  education,  and, 
with  Comenius,  believed  corporal  punishment  valueless 
as  an  incentive  to  intellectual  effort,  —  although,  like 
Comenius  also,  he  reserved  a  place  for  it  as  a  moral 
corrective ;  Rousseau  and  Herbert  Spencer  would  leave 
punishment  very  largely  to  the  "  discipline  of  natural 
consequences." 

Except  in  sporadic  instances  (of  which  the  Jesuit  schools 
are  a  no  table  example),  these  temperate  and  humane  ideals 
of  discipline,  however,  had  but  little  effect  upon  actual 
school  practice  until  their  power  was  intensified  and 
augmented  by  the  general  humanitarian  movement  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  development  of  a  new 
conception  of  the  function  of  punishment  in  the  whole 
scheme  of  life.  So  complete  has  been  the  transforma- 
tion, that  the  practices  not  uncommon  in  American 
schools  even  fifty  years  ago  are  scarcely  believable  to 
those  who  have  grown  up  under  the  new  order.  The 
rod  was  inseparably  connected  with  "  learning  " ;  often 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  177 

it  was  applied  very  much  as  parents  sometimes  adminis- 
ter medicine  to  their  children,  not  as  a  corrective  for 
present  conditions,  but  as  a  measure  of  precaution.1 
Certainly  no  sharp  line  was  drawn  between  the  use  of 
corporal  punishment  as  a  stimulus  to  mental  effort  and 
its  employment  as  a  punishment  for  offenses  against 
order;  it  was  used  indiscriminately  for  both  purposes. 
The  Older  Severity  sanctioned  by  the  Older  Ideals.  — 
It  is  not  to  be  inferred,  however,  that  the  teachers  of 
all  the  centuries  were  entirely  heartless  and  cruel.  The 
treatment  of  children  both  in  the  home  and  at  school  was 
severe  as  measured  by  our  present  standards,  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  the 
spirit  of  the  times.  It  was  not  only  sanctioned  but 
demanded  by  society;  and  the  teacher  who  could  not 
meet  this  demand  could  not  be  secure  in  his  employment. 
Nor,  under  these  conditions,  could  sporadic  and  excep- 

1  Speaking  of  a  time  much  earlier  —  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries — Cooper  says  (op.  cit.,  p.  427)  :  "In  those  days  it  would  appear 
that  boys  were  flogged,  not  for  any  offense,  or  omission,  or  unwilling- 
ness, or  incapacity  to  learn,  but  upon  the  abstract  theory  that  they 
ought  to  be  flogged.  Erasmus  bears  witness  that  this  was  the  principle 
upon  which  he  was  flogged.  He  was  a  favorite  with  his  master,  who 
had  good  hopes  of  his  disposition  and  abilities,  but  flogged  him  to  see 
how  he  could  bear  the  pain,  the  result  being  that  the  rod  nearly  spoiled 
the  child ;  his  health  and  spirit  were  broken  by  it,  and  he  began  to  dis- 
like his  studies."  The  famous  Colet,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  "although  he 
delighted  in  children,  and  was  a  good  man,  thought  no  discipline 
could  be  too  severe  in  his  school ;  and  whenever  he  dined  there,  one  or 
two  boys  were  served  up  to  be  flogged  by  way  of  dessert."  The  atti- 
tude toward  flogging  as  an  educative  measure  is  nowhere  more  clearly 
seen  in  all  its  inconsistency  than  the  practice  of  appointing  "whipping 
boys"  to  take  the  punishments  of  young  princes  and  noblemen! 

N 


178  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

tional  leniency  be  permanently  successful.  When  educa- 
tion through  the  birch  was  the  universal  rule,  a  type  of 
education  that  dispensed  entirely  with  this  method  would 
meet  with  a  social  disapproval  that  would  render  it 
ineffective.  The  pupils,  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
current  standards,  would  fail  entirely  to  understand  the 
situation,  and  their  natural  tendency  would  be  to  take 
immediate  advantage  of  the  leniency.  The  transform- 
ation of  standards  and  ideals  cannot  be  accomplished 
in  a  day. 

The  numerous  biblical  injunctions  and  precepts  regarding 
chastisement  have  naturally  had  a  large  influence  in  deter- 
mining disciplinary  practices  among  Jewish  and  Christian 
peoples.  Cooper  has  compiled  a  number  of  these  and  stated 
them  in  words  which,  he  says,  represent  literal  equivalents 
of  the  Hebrew  original : 

"The  fool  despises  the  chastisement  of  his  father,  but  he 
who  receives  stripes  will  be  wise:  chastise  thy  son  while 
there  is  hope,  but  let  not  thy  soul  be  moved  to  kill  him: 
let  one  beat  the  profane,  so  will  the  fool  become  wise;  let 
one  punish  one  of  understanding,  so  will  he  become  wise. 
Stripes  for  the  profane,  and  a  rod  for  the  fool's  back:  the 
young  man's  strength  is  his  praise;  one  must  retain  the 
wicked  with  hard  punishment,  and  with  sore  stripes  which 
one  may  feel ;  folly  dwells  in  the  heart  of  the  child,  but  the 
rod  of  correction  will  drive  it  far  from  him.  Open  chastise- 
ment is  better  than  secret  love :  the  chastisements  of  a  friend 
are  well  meant,  but  the  kisses  of  a  sycophant  are  dainty; 
rods  and  punishments  give  wisdom,  but  a  boy  given  up  to 
himself  shames  his  mother:  chastise  thy  son  so  will  he 
delight  thee,  and  will  do  good  to  thy  soul ;  the  whip  makes 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  179 

stripes,  but  an  evil  tongue  breaks  bones  and  all:  he  who 
loves  his  child  holds  it  continually  under  the  rod,  that  he 
may  thereafter  experience  joy  in  him ;  he  who  restrains  his 
child  will  delight  himself  in  him,  and  cannot  be  ashamed 
among  his  friends ;  he  is  weak  toward  his  child  who  mourns 
his  stripes  and  is  terrified  when  he  shakes ;  bow  his  neck 
while  he  is  yet  young,  make  blue  his  back  while  he  is  yet 
little,  that  he  may  not  become  stiff-necked  and  disobedient 
to  thee.  Cease  not  to  chastise  thy  boy,  for  though  thou 
strikest  him  with  the  rod  thou  wilt  not  kill  him;  thou 
belatest  him  with  the  Rod,  but  thou  preservest  his  soul  from 
hell." 

The  Development  of  Present-day  Conceptions  of  the 
Function  of  Punishment.  —  Whether  the  punishment  of 
children  as  an  educative  or  formative  agency  should  be 
identified  with  the  punishment  of  adults  for  offenses 
against  the  social  order  may  be  an  open  question;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  general  movement  that  has 
resulted  in  so  marked  a  change  in  the  older  conceptions 
of  punishment  in  the  legal  and  civic  sense  has  also  been 
the  most  important  factor  in  transforming  the  ideals  of 
school  discipline.  This  transformation  has  been  re- 
peatedly referred  to  in  the  preceding  sections.  It  now 
remains  to  trace  specifically  the  stages  through  which 
it  has  been  brought  about. 

The  idea  of  punishment  has  its  roots  in  basic  and  funda- 
mental instincts.  To  visit  upon  an  aggressor  retaliation 
for  real  or  supposed  wrongs  is  the  primitive  mode  of 
punishment;  it  involves  the  fighting  instinct  and  the 
emotion  of  anger,  —  recognized  forms  of  innate  or  "  un- 


l8o  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

learned  "  behavior.1  There  is  here  no  necessary  connec- 
tion between  the  nature  and  degree  of  the  offense  and 
the  nature  and  degree  of  the  vengeance.  Torture  and 
death  may  be  the  penalty  for  the  slightest  offenses,  or 
for  imagined  offenses,  or  for  the  mere  presence  of  a  vic- 
tim at  a  time  when  the  instinctive  forces  demand  an 
adequate  expression.  This  primitive  form  from  which 
modern  ideas  of  punishment  have  been  slowly  evolved 
is  known  as  vindictive  or  retributive  punishment.  Adapted 
as  it  is,  although  crudely  and  inequitably,  to  individual 
survival,  it  nevertheless  takes  on,  in  primitive  groups,  a 
social  form,  and  its  social  expression  is  still  in  evidence 
in  the  punishments  meted  out  by  mob  law  and  some- 
times so  loudly  clamored  for  by  a  public  opinion  that  has 
been  wrought  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  collective  anger. 

It  is  probable  that  the  first  step  away  from  this  primi- 
tive conception  of  punishment  was  taken  when  the  first 
feeble  glimmerings  of  the  ideal  of  justice  made  their 
appearance.  Unrestrained  vengeance  came  to  be  modi- 
fied by  the  idea  of  proportionate  punishment,  —  a  stage 
of  development  well  represented  by  the  injunction,  "  An 
eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth." 

With  the  development  of  stable  societies,  the  ideal  of 

1  "This  instinct  [of  pugnacity]  .  .  .  ranks  with  fear  as  regards  the 
great  strength  of  its  impulse  and  the  high  intensity  of  the  emotion  it 
generates.  .  .  .  The  condition  of  its  excitement  is  ...  any  opposition 
to  the  free  exercise  of  any  impulse,  any  obstruction  to  the  activity  to 
which  the  creature  is  impelled  by  any  one  of  the  other  instincts.  And 
its  impulse  is  to  break  down  any  such  obstruction,  and  to  destroy  what- 
ever offers  this  opposition."  —  W.  McDouGALL,  Social  Psychology, 
Boston,  1910,  p.  59. 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  l8l 

justice  becomes  more  clearly  dominant.  The  social 
dangers  of  individual  retaliation  are  recognized.  Hence- 
forth crimes  are  recognized  as  "  against  the  state,"  and 
the  exaction  of  "justice"  by  the  individual  becomes 
likewise  a  crime  against  the  state.  The  essential  injus- 
tice of  permitting  the  injured  party  to  dictate  the  pun- 
ishment is  clearly  seen.  At  this  point,  also,  the  ideal 
of  justice  which  has  heretofore  been  satisfied  with  pro- 
portionate justice  becomes  strengthened  and  extended 
to  include  the  idea  of  protective  punishment,  which  ex- 
presses itself  naturally  as  intimidatory  punishment. 
The  collective  judgment  of  the  social  group  recognizes 
that  wrongdoing  must  be  prevented  for  the  welfare 
of  all.  The  primitive  impulses  that  have  hitherto 
applied  chiefly  to  individual  survival  come  to  have  a 
wider  reference.  The  group,  as  it  were,  comes  into  the 
stage  of  self-consciousness:  it,  too,  must  survive  be- 
cause upon  its  survival  depends  the  welfare  of  the 
component  individuals. 

It  was  this  conception  of  punishment  as  a  means  of 
justice  and  of  social  survival  that  dominated  the  ad- 
ministration of  civil  law  until  comparatively  recent 
times.  While  individuals  certainly  recognized  the  in- 
adequacy of  the  conception,  the  institutions  of  society, 
which  are  changed  only  very  slowly  and  very  gradually, 
reflected  little  else  than  the  retributive  and  protective 
ideas.  With  the  great  social  upheavals  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  however,  the  older  conception  felt  the  influence 
of  modifying  agencies.  The  humanitarian  movement 


182  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

gained  momentum.  Under  the  stimulating  influence  of 
Rousseau  and  other  writers  with  exceptional  ability  to 
make  a  wide  popular  appeal,  the  ideas  of  equality  and 
of  the  essential  brotherhood  of  man  came  to  have  a 
wide  currency.  Prejudices  were  broken  down,  and  with 
the  French  Revolution  the  institutions  which  crystallized 
them  began  to  crumble.  The  ideas  of  civil  punishment 
were  not  the  first  to  feel  the  influence  of  these  forces  of 
change  and  transformation,  for  the  institutions  of  justice 
must,  of  necessity,  be  ultraconservative ;  but,  with  this 
spirit  of  change  rife  on  every  side,  it  was  inevitable  that 
they,  too,  should  sooner  or  later  come  under  its  sway. 

The  next  stage  in  the  evolution  of  punishment  marked 
a  most  important  advance.  It  recognized  the  funda- 
mental need  of  making  the  reform  of  the  criminal  the 
measure  of  a  punishment's  efficiency.  Hitherto  the  cul- 
prit had  been  an  outcast,  practically  cut  off  from  human 
help  and  human  sympathy.  From  this  time  on,  he 
became  in  ever-increasing  measure,  an  object  of  social 
solicitude.  To  return  him  to  society  rehabilitated  and 
made  anew  became  the  ideal  of  the  reformatory  theory  of 
punishment. 

Among  the  men  whose  efforts  were  especially  significant 
in  initiating  this  reformatory  principle  were  Cesare  Beccaria 
(1735-1794),  an  Italian  publicist,  and  the  author  of  several 
treatises  dealing  with  the  reform  of  criminal  law;  Jeremy 
Bentham  (1748-1832),  the  English  philosopher  and  jurist, 
whose  efforts  to  reconcile  law  and  morality  were  vital  factors 
in  replacing  the  retributive  and  tempering  the  protective 


CORPORAL  PUNISHMENT  183 

theories  of  punishment;  and  John  Howard  (1726-1790), 
whose  efforts  toward  the  reform  of  prisons  and  workhouses 
have  made  his  name  immortal. 

The  final  stage  in  the  evolution  of  punishment  is 
represented  by  the  movement  which  has  as  its  ideal 
eliminating  the  need  of  punishment  by  preventing  crime. 
The  ideal  is,  of  course,  Utopian,  and  yet  many  steps  may 
be  taken  to  reduce  the  amount  of  crime  and  so  do  away 
in  a  measure  with  the  necessity  of  punishment.  These 
steps  are  illustrated  by  the  movement  for  vocational 
education,  the  playground  movement,  the  agitation 
against  child  labor,  the  efforts  to  reconcile  capital  and 
labor  and  to  pass  minimum-wage  laws,  and  finally  the 
propaganda  for  preventing  the  breeding  of  defective 
and  delinquent  types.  In  general  these  various  move- 
ments aim  either  to  remedy  the  economic  conditions  of 
life,  to  provide  for  the  wholesome  employment  of  leisure, 
or  to  insure,  through  eugenic  practices,  an  elimination  of 
degenerate  "  stock." 

New  Prejudices  have  replaced  the  Old.  —  Under  the 
influence  of  the  humanitarian  ideal,  and  of  its  offspring, 
the  "  reformatory  "  conception  of  punishment,  social 
and  collective  prejudices  of  a  very  profound  type  have 
gradually  developed  until  to-day  they  possess  a  strength 
that  must  be  reckoned  with  by  every  policy  of  punish- 
ment, whether  in  adult  civil  life  or  in  school  life.  Forms 
of  corrective  treatment  that  were  once  taken  for  granted 
now  arouse  abhorrence  and  disgust.  One  of  the  earliest 
restrictions  of  corporal  punishment  as  a  civil  penalty 


1 84  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

prohibited  the  flogging  of  women  offenders,  and  one  of 
the  earliest  effective  reactions  against  corporal  punish- 
ment in  the  schools  was  to  interdict  the  whipping  of 
girls.  In  both  cases,  this  was  the  effective  expression 
of  a  new  prejudice,  —  an  extension  of  the  traditional 
respect  for  womanhood  which  made  it  inconsistent  with 
the  public  sense  of  decency  to  subject  girls  and  women 
to  bodily  chastisement  no  matter  how  great  the  offense 
for  which  the  punishment  was  inflicted.  Once  having 
gained  momentum,  the  prejudice  quickly  extended  to 
males.  Corporal  punishment  can  be  most  effectively 
applied  only  when  certain  parts  of  the  body  are  exposed, 
and  the  notion  that  self-respect  in  this  very  personal 
sense  could  not  in  justice  be  sacrificed  to  the  necessities 
of  punishment  has  gradually  eliminated  the  chastise- 
ment of  adolescents  in  schools.  Corporal  punishment 
is  now  almost  entirely  limited  to  preadolescent  children 
both  in  the  school  and  in  the  home,  and  it  is  possible 
that  the  sense  of  indelicacy  which  now  effectually  pre- 
vents the  use  of  the  rod  with  girls,  and  with  boys  who 
have  reached  the  age  of  sexual  self-consciousness,  may 
be  extended  downward  until  it  includes  the  youngest 
children ;  but  there  are  obvious  reasons  why  this  develop- 
ment, if  it  ever  takes  place,  will  come  very  slowly. 

It  should  be  added  that  another  factor  has  operated 
to  limit  corporal  punishment.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  there  are  certain  perverted  impulses  which  find 
pleasurable  gratification  in  inflicting  pain.  Indeed,  the 
alienist  recognizes  this  form  of  abnormality,  and  has 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  185 

given  it  a  name  which  need  not  be  repeated  here. 
Whether  this  impulse  is  inherited  or  whether  it  is  ac- 
quired through  practicing  chastisement,  is  debatable, 
but  it  is  probably  true  that  one  who  wreaks  one's  temper 
habitually  in  the  infliction  of  pain  is  likely  to  develop 
this  perverted  taste.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  in  the  past, 
men  and  women  who  have  craved  this  gratification  have 
deliberately  sought  the  kind  of  work  that  permitted  its 
enjoyment,  and  have  not  infrequently  found  places  in 
schools  where  the  severe  treatment  of  boys  and  girls 
was  sanctioned.  Most  of  the  scandals  that  occasionally 
find  their  way  into  the  newspapers,  involving  reports 
of  the  most  heartless  and  cruel  treatment  of  children, 
would  doubtless  reveal  upon  investigation  the  existence 
of  this  perverted  impulse. 

Difficulties  involved  in  Reconciling  the  Different 
Functions  of  Punishment.  —  It  is  characteristic  of  social 
evolution  that  rapid  advances  due  to  the  development 
of  new  ideals  are  followed  by  apparently  retrogressive 
movements;  at  one  point  or  another  the  new  theories 
fail  to  work  in  actual  practice,  and  a  readjustment  is 
necessary.  This  is  clearly  seen  in  the  reaction  that 
followed  the  French  Revolution.  The  excesses  and  other 
obvious  symptoms  of  a  lack  of  adjustment  made  inevi- 
table a  temporary  movement  toward  the  older  order,  - 
a  movement  that  found  expression  throughout  the  terri- 
tory that  had  been  influenced  by  the  eighteenth-century 
upheavals.  The  reaction  itself  was  extreme  and  gave 
rise  to  a  series  of  counterreactions,  notably  the  revolu- 


1 86  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

tions  of  1832,  1848,  and  1870,  alternating  with  tempo- 
rary triumph  of  the  conservative  forces.  This  general 
mode  of  "  zigzag  "  progress,  most  clearly  seen  in  the 
history  of  France,  may  be  taken  as  characteristic  of 
social  evolution,  and  it  has  a  striking  analogy  in  the 
uneven  progress  of  mental  development  in  the  indi- 
vidual.1 

The  development  of  the  modern  conception  of  punish- 
ment has  followed  a  similarly  zigzag  course,  although 
the  actual  retrogressive  movements  are  not  so  clearly 
in  evidence  because  actual  procedure  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  is,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  ultraconserva- 
tive,  and  has  barely  time  to  "  catch  up  "  with  theory 
before  a  dominant  doctrine  has  lost  the  extreme  and 
radical  features  which  a  new  and  untried  theory  almost 
always  represents.  It  is  true,  however,  that  the  ideal 
of  reform  has  suggested  many  changes  in  procedure 
which  have  had  to  be  modified  and  limited  because  the 
time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  them.  Thus  the  "  parole  " 
system  which  releases  convicted  lawbreakers  and  per- 
mits them  to  follow  their  regular  employment  under  the 
supervision  of  officers  of  the  court  was  successfully  ap- 
plied at  the  outset,  but  has  in  some  cases  led  to  an 
unfortunate  attitude  toward,  if  not  to  a  pronounced 
disrespect  for,  the  law.2 

1  In  the  "practice  curve,"  for  example.     See  below,  ch.  xiv. 

2  "  In  his  recent  report  as  director  of  the  Gatzert  Foundation,  Dr. 
Stevenson  Smith  points  out  that  leniency  toward  criminals  is  most 
successful  when  it  is  first  practiced,  and  that  as  probation  becomes  more 
general  it  is  less  effective.    The  value  of  probation  depends  entirely 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  187 

Leniency  and  Disrespect  for  Law.  —  These  reactionary 
movements  are  often  really  sincere  attempts  toward 
the  correction  of  existing  evils  rather  than  mere  expres- 
sions of  a  conversatism  that  hates  change.  New  ideas 
fail  to  work,  and  experimenting  with  them  creates  con- 
ditions that  demand  remedy.  Thus  the  growth  of  the 
ideals  of  reformatory  as  opposed  to  merely  protective 
punishment  and  the  doing  away  with  the  severer  modes 
of  treating  lapses  from  law  and  order  are  probably  in 
some  measure  responsible  for  the  increase  in  lawlessness 
and  in  serious  crime  which  constitutes  one  of  the  grave 
problems  of  modern  civilization,  especially  in  the  countries 
where  these  ideals  have  found  the  widest  expression,  — 
namely,  France  and  the  United  States. 

From  1850  to  1890,  the  proportion  of  criminals  in  the  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  increased  445  per  cent ;  the  popu- 
lation increased  only  170  per  cent  in  the  same  period.  A 
more  rigid  enforcement  of  the  law  would  explain  this  increase 
were  it  confined  to  the  sections  that  have  during  this  period 
passed  from  the  cruder  life  of  the  frontier  where  lawlessness 
is  perhaps  inevitable  to  the  stage  of  stable  civil  government. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  increase  was  general 
throughout  the  country.  From  1890  to  1904  the  number  of 
juvenile  offenders  increased  approximately  one  fifth  more 
rapidly  than  the  population  increased,  and  in  some  states 

upon  the  mental  attitude  of  the  probationer.  We  need  much  more 
careful  study  of  individual  cases  with  reference  to  the  mental  habits 
previous  to  the  crime  and  the  attitude  of  the  culprit  toward  his  crime 
and  toward  society  after  his  conviction,  in  order  to  secure  the  best 
results  from  the  probation  system. ' '  (Editorial  in  Journal  of  Educational 
Psychology,  vol.  iii,  1913,  p.  409.) 


1 88  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  proportion  was  even  doubled  during  these  fourteen  years. 
Juvenile  delinquency  has  been  admittedly  increasing  in  the 
larger  cities  during  the  last  twenty  years.  The  statistics 
revealing  the  large  proportional  increase  in  homicides  have 
been  frequently  quoted,  and  may  probably  be  safely  taken 
as  symptomatic  of  a  general  increase  in  serious  crime.  The 
figures  in  the  mortality  tables  of  the  Federal  census  giving 
the  proportion  of  deaths  from  homicide  in  the  registration  area 
are  difficult  to  interpret  because  of  the  gradual  extension  of 
this  area  from  year  to  year.1  Most  perplexing  of  all  of  the 
statistics,  however,  are  those  that  reveal  the  marked  increase 
of  homicides  in  the  larger  cities.  Here  the  proportion  rose 
from  91  murders  in  the  million  of  population  in  1880  to  117 
in  1890  and  nearly  150  in  i9io.2 

Leniency  in  School  Government  and  the  Increase  in 
Crime.  —  In  how  far  the  transformed  methods  of  disci- 
pline in  American  schools  have  had  an  influence  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  present  younger  generation  toward  law 
and  toward  the  rights  of  others,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

'According  to  the  census  reports,  there  were  in  the  "registration 
area"  28  murders  to  the  million  of  population  in  1904,  51  in  1906,  67 
in  1908,  and  59  in  1909.  In  the  rural  districts  of  the  registration  area 
the  proportions  were  as  follows:  6  to  the  million  in  1904,  12  in  1905, 
33  in  1906,  41  in  1907,  and  45  in  1908.  In  certain  selected  cities  of  the 
registration  area,  the  homicides  numbered  55  to  the  million  in  1904, 
99  to  the  million  in  1906,  and  143  to  the  million  in  1908.  As  the  regis- 
tration area  is  extended,  it  comes  gradually  to  include  those  portions  of 
the  country  where  statistics  of  mortality  have  not  heretofore  been  care- 
fully recorded ;  this  probably  means  that  these  sections  are  also  those 
in  which  lawlessness  is  most  frequent ;  hence  the  rapid  increase  noted. 
At  the  same  time,  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  there  has  been 
actual  increase  in  the  proportion  of  homicides  during  this  period. 

2  The  significance  of  our  national  homicide  record  cannot  be  thor- 
oughly appreciated  until  we  contrast  our  record  with  that  of  other 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  189 

It  is  true  that  the  second  generation  of  the  immigrant 
population  (coming  chiefly  from  northern  Europe)  re- 
veals a  higher  proportion  of  criminality  than  the  first 
generation;  that  is,  the  generation  that  has  passed 
through  our  public  schools  is  on  the  whole  less  law-abiding 
than  were  the  immigrants  themselves;  and  while  this 
may  be  due  to  other  factors,  the  responsibility  of  the 
school  for  failing  to  inculcate  effective  ideals  of  respect 
for  law  can  hardly  be  evaded.  It  has  been  during  this 
period  that  disciplinary  measures  have  been  most  rad- 
ically transformed,  and  this  transformation  has  come 

civilized  countries.  The  following  table  is  based  on  data  taken  from  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica  (nthed.,  Art.  "Temperance  ")  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  items  for  the  United  States,  New  Zealand,  and  Canada : 

Number  of  persons  in  the  million 

Country  of  total  population  tried  for 

murder  annually 

Italy 154 

Spain 119 

Austria       40 

Ireland        33 

Belgium 30 

France 27 

Scotland 21 

Germany 16 

England 16 

Holland        u 

New  Zealand 6 

Canada        5  (convictions) 

United  States       30  (commitments) 

When  it  is  remembered  that  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  total 
number  brought  to  trial  for  murder'  in  the  United  States  are  convicted 
and  committed,  the  unfortunate  showing  made  by  this  country  is  all 
the  more  striking.  The  present  (1914)  homicide  rate  for  the  United 
States  as  a  whole  has  been  placed  by  competent  authorities  at  65  in  the 
million  annually. 


1 90  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

first  in  those  sections  receiving  large  proportions  of  the 
immigrant  tide,  —  that  is,  in  large  cities. 

In  New  York  City,  for  example,  corporal  punishment 
has  been  forbidden  since  1878  by  ruling  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  The  difficulties  which  are  experienced  in 
maintaining  a  reasonable  measure  of  obedience  from 
the  pupils  in  this  system  are  recounted  by  Professor 
McMurry,  a  member  of  the  School  Inquiry  Commission 
which,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Professor  Paul  Hanus, 
made  a  survey  of  the  New  York  schools  in  1911-1912  : 

"  Saying  nothing  of  the  fact  that  to  many  pupils  punish- 
ments more  cruel  than  corporal  punishment  are  applied, 
and  that  the  by-law  forbidding  corporal  punishment  is  often 
ignored,  the  great  fact  is  that  many  class-room  teachers  are 
at  then-  wits'  end  every  day  to  discover  how  to  give  instruc- 
tion while  certain  pupils  constantly  cause  disorder.  A  large 
proportion  of  their  time  and  energy  is  expended  merely 
trying  to  get  on  with  such  pupils,  until  ill  health  results 
from  worry  and  exhaustion. 

"Although  any  educational  system  that  enforces  compul- 
sory attendance  is  under  obligations  to  protect  each  pupil,  not 
only  from  physical  but  also  from  moral  contagion,  yet  it  is  a 
fact  that  the  great  majority  are  influenced  harmfully,  through 
no  fault  of  their  own,  by  observing  examples  of  disobedience. 

"Finally  the  troublesome  pupils  themselves,  conscious  of 
the  powerlessness  of  their  teachers,  become  confirmed  in 
lawless  habits  in  the  very  place  that  is  intended  to  teach 
them  to  observe  the  rights  of  others;  and  these  lawless 
habits,  carried  into  after  life,  lead  directly  to  the  lawless 
gangs  and  rowdyism  so  common  to-day."  1 

1  F.   M.  McMurry,  Elementary  School  Standards,  Yonkers,  N.Y., 
P-  74- 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  IQI 

Upon  the  basis  of  these  facts,  the  Commission  recom- 
mended that  the  by-law  prohibiting  corporal  punishment 
be  rescinded,  and  that  the  right  to  inflict  corporal  punish- 
ment be  delegated  to  the  principals  of  the  various  schools, 
and  to  the  teachers  of  special  classes  for  unruly  children 
when  such  classes  are  organized.  The  recommendation, 
however,  contemplated  the  exercise  of  this  authority 
under  very  definite  restrictions :  (i)  medical  examina- 
tion of  pupils  prior  to  the  infliction  of  corporal  punish- 
ment ;  (2)  the  written  consent  of  the  parent  or  guardian 
where  it  is  possible  to  secure  this ;  (3)  the  presence  of 
an  adult  witness ;  (4)  the  preservation  of  careful  records 
of  the  cause  of  punishment  and  methods  used. 

In  answer  to  the  question,  Have  the  more  lenient 
ideals  and  methods  of  school  and  home  discipline 
operated  to  increase  disrespect  for  law?  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  they  have  had  some  influence,  although  it  would 
be  unjust  to  shoulder  upon  these  methods  a  very  large 
share  of  the  responsibility.  That  they  have  been  con- 
tributing factors  it  is  reasonable  to  infer.1  And  the  cause 

1  That  laxity  in  school  discipline  may  give  rise  to  an  increase  in  crime 
is  too  ready  an  inference  to  be  employed  without  great  caution.  One 
with  ultraconservative  tendencies  is  especially  likely  to  infer  causal 
connections  of  this  sort  without  any  evidence  that  such  connections 
exist.  In  every  generation,  the  conservative  will  proclaim  that  disas- 
ter is  certain  to  come  from  the  "new"  practices.  An  American  school- 
master writing  in  1837  complains  of  the  laxity  in  the  schools  of  that 
period :  "It  is  to  this  new-fashioned  laxity  of  rule  that  we  may  in  part 
attribute,  I  think,  much  of  the  insubordination  and  riot,  yes,  even  'Lynch 
law,'  which  has  crept  into  our  schools  and  families,  as  well  as  pervaded 
like  a  pestilence  over  our  states."  —  Annals  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Instruction,  vol.  viii,  p.  80. 


1 92  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

of  whatever  degenerating  influence  they  have  exerted 
must  be  sought,  not  in  the  fact  that  the  humanitarian 
ideals  are  inherently  weak  and  ineffective,  but  rather 
in  the  fact  that  they  have  been  applied  emotionally 
and  not  intelligently.  Leniency  has  become  weak 
sentimentalism.  Mastery  has  given  place  all  too  often 
to  fawning ;  "  obedience  "  has  been  sought  by  petting 
and  cajolery ;  sympathy  has  degenerated  into  a  mawkish 
coquetry  for  the  goodwill  of  the  child.  In  short,  from 
the  extreme  of  rigor,  school  discipline  has  swung  in  many 
instances  to  the  extreme  of  indulgence,  —  stimulated 
by  a  crude  philosophy  in  which  highly  emotionalized 
shibboleths  have  been  mistaken  for  fundamental  prin- 
ciples. Soft-heartedness,  which  is  a  prime  virtue,  has 
been  combined  with  sof t-headedness,  —  and  when  this 
happens,  disaster  is  inevitable. 

Much  more  significant  than  appears  on  the  surface 
is  the  statement  hi  the  report  of  the  New  York  School 
Inquiry  that  "  many  punishments  more  cruel  than  cor- 
poral punishment  have  been  applied,  and  that  the  law 
forbidding  corporal  punishment  is  often  ignored."  This 
is  true,  not  only  of  New  York  City,  but  also  of  other 
communities  in  which  a  prejudice  has  grown  up  against 
corporal  punishment.  Where  laws  which  both  pupils 
and  teachers  know  to  be  in  force  are  openly  evaded, 
there  can  be  small  hope  that  an  effective  respect  for  law 
will  be  engendered. 

The  Place  of  Corporal  Punishment.  —  It  would  not  be 
right  to  infer  from  apparent  inefficiency  of  lenient  ideals 


CORPORAL    PUNISHMENT  193 

and  methods  of  discipline  that  the  principle  of  corporal 
punishment  should  be  reaffirmed  as  a  tenet  of  school  dis- 
cipline. Far  from  it.  As  has  been  suggested,  every  new 
advance  is  likely  to  be  followed  by  a  reaction,  which  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  new  ideal  has  overshot  the  mark  of  pres- 
ent practicability.  On  the  whole,  the  doing  away  with  the 
rod  of  correction  has  constituted  a  most  wholesome  reform 
in  school  practice  in  spite  of  some  of  the  evils  that  have 
accompanied  it.  The  problem  is  to  recognize  the  evils  not 
as  a  justification  of  a  complete  return  to  the  older  order, 
but  as  a  stimulus  to  further  effort  in  the  direction  of  prog- 
ress. Democracy  and  the  rule  of  the  people  brought  with 
it  many  abuses  and  shortcomings ;  the  highly  emotional 
radicals  refused  to  recognize  these  evils ;  the  highly 
emotional  conservatives  delighted  to  parade  them  as 
evidences  of  the  inherent  failure  of  the  democratic  prin- 
ciple, and  as  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  going  back 
to  the  former  condition.  But  the  great  mass  of  right- 
thinking  and  clear-thinking  people  quickly  recognized, 
both  that  the  new  abuses  must  be  abated  and  that  this 
must  be  done  without  returning  to  the  old  order.  The 
situation  is  precisely  the  same  in  connection  with  school 
discipline.  There  are  many  who  will  see  in  the  new 
practices  no  dangers  or  defects;  there  are  others  who 
can  find  nothing  but  retrogression  and  decay,  and  who 
sigh  heavily  for  the  "  good  old  times  "  when  boys  and 
girls  were  "  made  to  behave."  But  the  path  of  reason 
and  of  clear  thinking  is  to  recognize  the  evils  and 
plan  to  correct  them,  while  at  the  same  time  the  un- 
o 


IQ4  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

doubted  virtues  inherent  in  the  new  order  are  sedulously 
and  jealously  guarded.  This  is  by  far  the  most  difficult 
way  in  which  to  meet  the  problem,  but  it  is  the  only 
effective  way. 

Let  us  conclude,  then,  that  the  day  of  corporal  punish- 
ment as  an  important  agency  in  school  discipline  has 
passed  never  to  return.  And  let  us  also  conclude  that 
its  passing  is  not  yet  complete  and  cannot  be  complete 
until  social  customs  and  prejudices  have  been  thoroughly 
adjusted  to  the  new  order  and  until  effective  methods  of 
dealing  with  acute  disciplinary  difficulties  have  been  dig- 
covered,  standardized,  and  made  effective  by  general  rec- 
ognition. The  period  through  which  we  are  passing  is  in 
every  respect  a  transitional  period.  Here  we  must  use  old 
devices  and  agencies  if  necessary  when  the  new  methods 
and  agencies  fail,  and  pending  the  discovery  of  something 
better.  It  is  the  writer's  opinion  that  the  right  of  corporal 
punishment  should  be  reserved  by  the  people  to  the  teachers 
and  officers  of  the  people's  schools.  Respect  for  law  must 
be  engendered,  and  those  to  whom  the  task  is  delegated 
must  have  requisite  authority.  But  the  authority  should 
be  safeguarded  by  careful  restrictions;  it  should  be 
exercised  with  extreme  caution ;  and  it  should  gradually 
come  to  operate  entirely  through  vicarious  channels  — 
that  is,  it  should  be  the  possibility  of  such  punishment, 
rather  than  its  actual  infliction  that  will  fulfill  the  desired 
regulative  function. 

The    Infliction   of    Corporal    Punishment.  —  To    the 
young  teacher,  advice  regarding  corporal  punishment 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  1 95 

should  be  replete  with  cautions.  Wherever  this  penalty 
is  forbidden  by  law  or  by  board  ruling,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  it  should  in  no  case  be  applied, 
and  any  "  laying  on  of  hands  "  should  be  interpreted 
as  coming  under  this  injunction.  Where  public  opinion 
is  against  the  practice,  it  should  have  practically  the 
same  effect  as  a  prescription.  It  is  said l  that  the  recent 
decisions  of  the  courts  in  cases  where  teachers- have  been 
brought  to  trial  for  inflicting  corporal  punishment  have 
been  almost  exclusively  against  the  teacher,  —  a  state 
of  affairs  quite  different  from  that  which  prevailed  in 
the  past  when  the  teacher's  contentions  were  almost 
invariably  upheld  by  the  courts.  Where  corporal 
punishment  is  "  expected  "  by  the  community  as  a  part 
of  school  discipline,  —  as  it  still  is  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  —  it  is  well  to  get  on  without  it  just  as  long 
as  one  can  do  so  and  still  retain  one's  authority.  But 
where  it  is  expected,  it  sometimes  happens  that  to 
"  whip  "  is  the  only  avenue  to  the  establishment  of  one's 
authority.  In  general,  if  corporal  punishment  is  per- 
mitted, it  is  much  better  to  make  use  of  it  temperately 
than  to  resort  to  expulsion;  certainly,  in  such  cases, 
one  should  not  hesitate  to  use  it  if  other  measures  are 
ineffective. 

To  the  young  teacher  who  has  decided  to  use  this  meas- 
ure, the  following  specific  suggestions  may  be  helpful : 

1.  Never  administer  punishment  in  anger. 

2.  If  a  whip  is  applied,  use  a  light "  switch  "  over  the 

1  By  A.  E.  Winship  in  an  editorial  in  the  Journal  of  Education  (Boston). 


196  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

backs  of  the  legs  or  a  light  ruler  on  the  palms  of  the 
hands.  Do  not  strike  the  head,  box  the  ears,  or 
"  shake  "  the  offender. 

3.  If  possible,  have  an  adult  witness. 

4.  Do  not  administer  such  punishment  before  other 
pupils. 

5.  Obtain  the  consent  of  the  parent  if  possible  before- 
hand.    (To  confer  with  parents  beforehand  will  often 
preclude  the  necessity  of  punishment.) 

6.  Keep  a  record  of  the  offense,  the  nature  of  the 
punishment,  and  the  time  and  manner  of  its  infliction. 

It  was  said  above  that  methods  must  be  devised  to  do 
what  physical  coercion  and  corporal  punishment  have 
been  supposed  to  do  in  the  past.  We  have  already 
referred  to  some  of  these  methods,  —  insuring  a  coercive 
influence  of  the  work  itself  and  of  the  social  group,  - 
but  some  of  the  numerous  specific  devices  that  are 
employed  in  present-day  day  schools  will  undoubtedly 
be  used  at  times  by  almost  every  teacher,  and  these 
deserve  a  chapter  by  themselves. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Professor  James  Sully  once  said  that  children  actually 
crave  punishment  after  committing  faults.     Do  you  recall 
in  your  own  childhood  instances  of  this  sort?    Did  punish- 
ment bring  to  you  a  feeling  of  relief? 

2.  Analyze  your  own  attitude  toward  corporal  punish- 
ment in  childhood.    Did  it  appeal  to  you  as  worse  than 
other  penalties?    If  it  was  applied,  did  the  experience  em- 
bitter you  toward  the  one  inflicting  the  punishment  ? 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT  1 97 

3.  As  a  general  rule,  a  punishment  that  is  employed  as  a 
corrective  for  immoral  or  forbidden  activities  should  not  be 
employed  as  a  stimulus  to  greater  effort  in  the  regular  school 
work.     Can  you  justify  this  rule? 

4.  An  obvious  reason  why  the  teacher  should  not  inflict 
punishment  in  anger  or  in  a  vindictive  mood  is  that  he  will 
run  the  risk  of  physical  injury  to  the  pupil.     Are  there  other 
reasons  ? 

5.  Add  to  the  instances  given  in  the  text  illustrating  how 
ideals   gradually   become   deeply   seated   prejudices.     (For 
example,  the  humanitarian  ideal  has  resulted  in  a  prejudice 
against   the  infliction  of  humiliating  punishments.    Have 
similar  consequences  followed  from  the  general  acceptance 
of  other  ideals  ?) 

6.  Assuming   that   serious  crime  has   increased   in  the 
United  States  more  rapidly  than  the  population  has  in- 
creased, to  what  causes  would  you  attribute  this  increase? 
(The  increase  in  wealth,  and  economic  evils,   have  been 
blamed  in  this  connection.     Are  there  other  possible  fac- 
tors?) 

7.  What  steps  might  be  taken  by  the  public  schools  to 
check  the  apparent  increase  in  disrespect  for  law  and  for 
the  rights  of  others?    What  is  the  relation  of  school  disci- 
pline to  this  problem  ? 

8.  What  would  be  your  judgment  as  to  the  possibility 
of  eliminating  corporal  punishment  entirely  from  education, 
both  in  the  home  and  in  the  school  ? 

9.  Some  authorities  maintain  that  corporal  punishment 
in  school  and  home  will  tend  to  offset  the  "softening"  in- 
fluences of  modern  civilization.     Discuss  this  theory. 

10.  Corporal  punishment  is  forbidden  in  the  public  schools 
of  France  and  of  Japan.  It  is  a  common  practice  in  the 
public  schools  of  Germany,  and  not  uncommon  in  England. 
Does  any  significance  attach  to  these  comparisons  ? 


CHAPTER  XII 

CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES 

SOME  of  the  penalties  that  were  common  in  the  old- 
time  school  have  been  abandoned  even  more  completely 
than  corporal  punishment.  Perhaps  the  most  notable 
of  these  are  the  practices  of  having  pupils  assume  un- 
comfortable or  even  painful  positions  and  expose  them- 
selves to  ridicule  (as  by  wearing  a  "  dunce-cap")-  With 
the  reaction  against  corporal  punishment  (which,  it  will 
be  remembered,  was  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  this 
punishment  often  involved  a  sacrifice  of  self-respect)  has 
gone  a  reaction  against  other  penalties  in  which  the  effec- 
tive "  sting  "  was  public  humiliation  or  shame.  The  dis- 
astrous effect  of  humiliation  upon  the  individual  was  not 
a  matter  of  concern  so  long  as  the  function  of  punish- 
ment was  conceived  as  either  retaliation  or  mere  pro- 
tection. But  when  the  ideas  of  reform  and  prevention 
came  to  the  fore,  the  inconsistency  of  imposing  humili- 
ating penalties  was  quickly  recognized.  The  penalties, 
then,  that  are  to  be  consistent  with  the  new  order  must 
not  only  be  free  from  the  necessity  of  touching  or  exposing 
any  part  of  the  body  ordinarily  covered,  but  they  must  also 
be  devoid  as  far  as  possible  of  any  tendency  to  shame 
or  humiliate  the  individual  publicly.  It  is  true  that  some- 

198 


CONTEMPORARY   SCHOOL   PENALTIES  199 

thing  that  would  make  for  the  efficiency  of  the  punish- 
ment is  hereby  lost,  but  this  is  only  another  instance 
of  paying  a  certain  price  for  a  greater  gain. 

Contemporary  School  Penalties.  —  The  penalties  im- 
posed for  occasional  lapses  from  good  conduct  in  the 
school  in  which  an  effective  "  fashion  "  of  order  and 
industry  has  been  established  need  not  delay  us  long, 
for  the  very  fact  that  the  attitude  of  the  pupils  is  favor- 
able to  school  work  will  mean  that  mere  admonition  from 
the  teacher  will  be  all  that  is  necessary.  Where  this 
is  unavailing,  the  preservation  of  the  healthful  school 
spirit  will  demand  that  immediate  steps  of  a  more  heroic 
character  must  be  adopted  —  for  the  principal  or  the 
teacher  who  has  succeeded  in  building  up  a  wholesome 
fashion  of  discipline  must  guard  it  most  jealously. 
A  suspension  from  the  classroom  or  from  the  school 
for  a  brief  period  and  a  conference  with  the  pupil's 
parents  will  usually  bring  the  desired  results  in  such  cases. 
For  the  younger  children,  some  of  whom  will  be  sub- 
ject to  occasional  periods  of  irritability  or  fretfulness,  - 
which  may  perhaps  develop  into  spasms  of  "  temper," 
-  the  effective  treatment  is  similar  to  that  employed 
in  good  homes  under  similar  conditions,  —  confinement 
in  a  room  by  themselves,  where  they  will  have  an  op- 
portunity to  calm  down,  and  where  they  will  be  removed 
from  an  opportunity  of  disturbing  or  "  infecting " 
others. 

"Solitary  Treatment"  -In  at  least  one  modern  ele- 
mentary school  building  a  room  is  provided  known  as 


200  SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE 

the  "  think  room  "  for  the  reception  [of  these  cases.  It 
is  small,  but  well  lighted,  —  not  the  traditional  "  dark 
room  "  or  closet,  and  it  is  furnished  with  a  single  chair. 
Troublesome  pupils  are  sent  to  this  room  and  required 
to  remain  there  alone  and  without  books  or  other  means 
of  diversion,  with  a  suggestion  that  they  "  think  over  " 
the  matter.  A  pupil  thus  Incarcerated  may  yell  lustily 
at  the  outset,  but  after  the  storm  has  subsided,  and  he 
has  an  opportunity  to  settle  down  into  a  reflective  mood, 
the  "cure  "  is  usually  quick  and  effective. 

There  is  sound  psychology  back  of  this  proposal,  and 
it  is  possible  that  an  application  of  the  principle  may 
serve  even  in  critical  cases  to  take  the  place  of  corporal 
punishment  and  of  the  penalties  involving  public  shame 
and  humiliation.  The  mental  attitude  induced  by  soli- 
tude is  quite  different  from  that  involved  in  the  social 
relationships,  and  one  of  the  first  steps  in  "  reforming  " 
a  recalcitrant  is  to  remove  him  from  the  companionship 
of  those  who  will  aid  and  abet  him  in  his  wrongdoing. 
A  principal  has  reported  the  following  case  illustrative  of 
the  beneficial  influence  of  this  type  of  treatment : 

Three  eighth-grade  boys  were  implicated  in  an  act  of 
vandalism,  and  their  names  were  reported  by  the  teacher 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  room.  Each  of  these  boys  was 
taken  separately  and  placed  in  a  room  by  himself  to  think 
the  matter  over.  After  an  hour  of  this  treatment,  the  three 
were  brought  together  and  told  to  discuss  with  one  another 
the  offense  and  to  devise  adequate  means  of  reparation. 
The  plan  worked  successfully.  The  preliminary  reflection 
had  led  them  all  to  a  real  and  effective  repentance  for  their 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       2OI 

misconduct,  and  the  thoughts  that  were  uppermost  in  their 
minds  when  they  were  thus  unexpectedly  brought  together 
led  at  once  to  mutual  confessions  and  promises  which  very 
adequately  fulfilled  the  purpose  of  a  penalty. 

If  facilities  are  available,  this  solitary  treatment  could, 
perhaps,  be  applied  as  an  effective  coercive  measure 
in  schools  where  the  wrong  fashions  of  order  prevail ; 
but  the  measure  is  not  likely  to  be  so  uniformly  success- 
ful here,  for  the  entire  pupil  body  is,  by  hypothesis, 
badly  infected  with  virus  of  disorder  and  disobedience, 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  whole  matter  would  be 
looked  upon  as  indicative  of  the  impotence  of  those  in 
authority  to  deal  effectively  with  the  situation.  How- 
ever, in  schools  where  other  methods  cannot  well  be 
applied,  this  proposal  is  worthy  of  trial. 

Satiation  as  a  Penalty.  —  Punishment  through  satia- 
tion, while  sometimes  most  effective,  is  not  often  prac- 
ticable in  school.  The  results  of  forbidden  and  injurious 
activities  will  often  be  disastrous  both  to  the  individual 
and  to  the  group  before  the  point  has  been  reached  where 
disgust  takes  the  place  of  enjoyment.  "  Nature  "  will 
usually  compel  a  change  of  activity  long  before  this 
point  has  been  reached,  consequently  if  the  principle  of 
satiation  is  to  be  successfully  applied,  the  teacher  must 
see  to  it  that  the  forbidden  activity  is  continued  long 
after  the  pupil  desires  to  discontinue  it. 

The  following  case  illustrates  the  conditions  under  which 
the  principle  may  be  successfully  applied  —  and  it  is  clear 


202  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

from  the  illustration  that  these  conditions  can  only  very  in- 
frequently be  fulfilled. 

A  schoolroom  was  so  constructed  that  the  ceiling  was  sup- 
ported by  iron  pillars  surmounted  by  Corinthian  capitals. 
Once  when  the  teacher  was  absent  from  the  room  for  a  few 
moments,  a  boy  yielded  to  an  impulse  which  had  often  possessed 
him,  —  namely,  to  "shin"  up  one  of  the  pillars.  When  the 
teacher  returned,  she  found  the  boy  perched  at  the  summit  with 
an  arm  and  one  leg  over  a  corner  of  the  capital.  She  remarked 
pleasantly  upon  his  exploit  and  told  him  to  stay  there.  It  was 
fun  for  a  few  moments,  but  the  unnatural  posture  quickly 
became  uncomfortable,  and  it  was  not  very  long  before  the 
adventurous  lad  was  longing  for  permission  to  come  down.  He 
saw,  however,  that  the  joke  was  turned,  and  said  nothing. 
Finally,  when  the  teacher  saw  that  the  discomfort  had  ap- 
proached agony,  she  relented  and  told  the  boy  to  take  his 
seat.  The  climbing  of  pillars,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say, 
was  not  repeated. 

Rebukes  and  scoldings  vary  widely  in  their  efficacy. 
In  the  well-ordered  school,  the  slightest  rebuke  may, 
as  we  have  suggested,  be  extremely  effective.  Where 
disorder  prevails,  admonitions  and  scoldings  are  likely 
to  have  little  force.  Their  employment  is  also  to  be 
avoided  because  they  serve  all  too  well  to  advertise  to 
the  pupils  the  inefficiency  of  the  teacher.  The  teacher 
is  lost  the  moment  his  or  her  helplessness  becomes  ap- 
parent, and  rebukes  which  lead  to  ineffective  threats, 
and  finally  grow  into  a  stormy  passion  of  angry  words, 
quickly  produce  an  impossible  situation.  To  "  curb  the 
tongue  "  in  such  situations  is  undoubtedly  the  best  policy 
for  the  teacher  to  pursue. 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       203 

"The  great  value  of  scolding  is  in  its  immediate  result, 
like  scratching  a  sore.  It  is  saying  what  ought  to  be  said 
in  a  way  that  ought  not  to  be  used.  It  is  the  angry  setting 
forth  of  truth.  It  is  egotistical.  The  scolder  is  thinking  of 
himself,  his  wasted  time,  and  pains,  his  offended  dignity, 
his  wounded  vanity.  It  grows  on  him.  The  manner  begins 
to  count  more  than  the  matter.  The  listener  ignores  the 
what  and  resents  the  how.  The  scolder  vitiates  the  atmos- 
phere and  poisons  his  own  disposition.  Nothing  ages  one 
sooner  than  scolding.  The  cure  is  simple.  Count  ten  before 
scolding,  then  make  two  pleasant  noises  with  the  voice 
afterwards." l 

Keeping  after  school  is  probably  the  most  common 
method  of  punishment  now  used  in  American  schools. 
It  has  its  advantages,  especially  if  it  is  made  to  represent 
the  principle  of  solitary  treatment  mentioned  above. 
One  of  the  best  teachers  of  our  acquaintance  makes 
retention  after  school  practically  her  sole  recourse  in 
discipline.  Sometimes,  although  not  frequently,  she 
remains  with  a  rebellious  pupil  for  two  hours,  —  but  he 
is  usually  conquered  before  that  time.  By  relentlessly 
carrying  out  the  penalty,  whenever  its  employment  is 
necessary,  she  has  made  it  a  powerful  deterrent.  The 
practice  suffers,  however,  from  two  defects:  first,  it 
keeps  the  teacher  from  getting  the  exercise  and  diversion 
in  the  open  air  that  every  teacher  should  try  to  take 
between  four  and  six ;  and  secondly,  it  is  likely  to  inter- 
fere with  the  janitor's  work.  On  the  whole,  however,  it 

1  F.  M.  Braselman,  in  the  Washington  Irving  High  School  Writs  of 
Assistance,  New  York,  1914,  p.  225. 


204  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

represents  a  mode  of  punishment  that  may  be  made  to 
fulfill  very  effectively  the  conditions  laid  down  earlier 
in  the  discussion :  it  does  not  necessarily  involve  public 
shame  and  humiliation,  it  is  not  "  corporal  "  punishment, 
and,  with  the  normal  pupil,  it  usually  has  an  effective 
"  sting."  There  would  seem  to  be  some  injustice 
involved  in  the  case  of  pupils  who  have  regular  tasks  and 
duties  outside  of  school  after  school  hours, — particularly, 
boys  in  towns  and  cities  who  carry  papers,  and  it  is 
possible  that  courts  would  rule  that  the  authority  of  the 
teacher  ends  with  the  end  of  the  school  day.  Conditions 
that  are  unjust  must,  in  any  case,  be  avoided. 

"  Keeping  in  "  at  recess  is  also  a  common  penalty,  but 
it  is  the  writer's  belief  that  this  is  bad  practice.  The 
room  needs  airing,  the  teacher  will  very  likely  have 
supervisory  duties  on  the  playground,  and  the  penalty 
is  usually  so  slight  as  to  be  quite  ineffective. 

Demerit  marks,  successive  accumulations  of  which  will 
lead  to  the  infliction  of  other  penalties  varying  in  inten- 
sity have  been  employed  with  good  results  hi  some 
schools.  Their  use  is  especially  recommended  by  J.  S. 
Taylor,  a  district  superintendent  in  New  York  City,  in  a 
book l  which  evidently  grew  out  of  the  difficulties  of 
maintaining  order  in  a  system  where  corporal  punishment 
is  forbidden. 

The  plan  proposes  keeping  a  book  in  which  merits  and 
demerits  are  carefully  recorded.     "A  space  is  made  for  each 
day  because  a  boy  often  wants  to  know  when  he  received  his 
1  J.  S.  Taylor,  Class  Management,  New  York,  1903,  pp.  51  f. 


CONTEMPORARY   SCHOOL  PENALTIES  205 

marks.  It  is  important  for  pupils  to  believe  that  the  book 
is  absolutely  correct.  It  should  be  kept  in  ink  so  that  there 
will  be  no  temptation  to  erase  the  marks.  The  pupil  who 
keeps  the  book  must  have  the  confidence  of  the  class,  and 
just  as  soon  as  he  loses  that  he  should  be  discharged. 

"It  is  probably  better  to  have  two  monitors  [monitorial 
appointments,  by  the  way,  play  an  important  part  in  Dr. 
Taylor's  entire  scheme  of  discipline  and  management],  one 
for  the  debits  and  one  for  the  credits.  These  monitors  sit 
near  the  teacher  and  always  put  the  record  into  the  teacher's 
desk  before  the  class  is  dismissed." 

The  debits  and  credits  are  then  transferred  to  the  general 
"account"  of  each  pupil,  and  for  the  following  week  the 
favors  and  privileges  are  given  or  withheld  on  the  basis  of 
this  record.  Dr.  Taylor  maintains  that  this  leaves  no 
chance  of  biased  judgment  and  that  the  device  serves  ad- 
mirably to  impress  upon  the  pupil's  mind  the  fact  that  he 
alone  earns  or  sacrifices  the  rewards  by  his  own  behavior. 
As  a  suggestion  of  the  way  in  which  the  system  operates 
in  administering  discipline,  the  following  directions  for  the 
guidance  of  the  young  teacher  are  quoted : 

"  (a)  A  glance  in  the  direction  of  the  offender. 

"  (b)  A  quiet  summoning  to  the  desk  by  beckoning,  and 
a  kind  but  firm  rejoinder  that  his  conduct  is  objectionable. 

"  (c)  A  second  summoning  and  one  demerit. 

"  (d)  Two  demerits. 

"  (e)  A  reprimand  and  five  demerits. 

"  (f)  Tell  the  pupil  to  change  his  seat  temporarily  and  sit 
by  his  teacher's  desk,  informing  him  quietly  that,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  necessary  to  watch  him,  you  want  to  make  it  as  con- 
venient for  yourself  as  possible ;  this  and  five  demerits  more. 

"  (g)  Refuse  to  allow  him  to  go  on  with  the  lesson ;  let 
him  sit  with  his  arms  folded  for  five  or  ten  minutes,  then  let 
him  write  a  careful  letter  on  the  propriety  of  obeying  one's 


2O6  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

teacher.  If  this  is  not  properly  done,  charge  up  a  lesson 
against  him  and  ask  him  to  bring  it  next  morning.  More 
demerits." 

Reduced  to  cold  print,  and  viewed  in  the  light  of 
fundamental  principles  (and  of  what  we  know  of  child 
nature),  this  elaborate  system  of  merits  and  demerits 
seems  to  be  about  the  last  word  in  hopeless  inefficiency, 
—  although  it  would  doubtless  work  well  enough  in  some 
instances.  Its  defects  (from  the  point  of  view  of  theory) 
will  serve  to  illustrate  the  general  defects  of  a  demerit 
system  in  discipline  :  (i)  It  imposes  a  laborious  task  of 
bookkeeping  upon  the  teacher ;  (2)  it  fails  to  provide  an 
immediate  and  unequivocal  "  sting  "  for  offenses  and 
lapses,  and  consequently  fails  of  the  chief  function  of 
the  penalty,  which  is  to  associate  with  the  offense  a 
deterring  feeling  of  unpleasantness ;  and  (3)  it  makes  for 
delay  in  the  administration  of  justice.  It  would  work 
effectively  only  under  the  condition  that  the  demerits 
themselves  came  to  be  endowed  with  the  essential 
"  sting  "  and  this  would  be  possible  only  by  providing, 
for  an  accumulation  of  demerits,  actual  punishments 
which  would  be  feared  much  more  keenly  than  those 
which  Dr.  Taylor  proposes  (chiefly  loss  of  monitorial 
positions).  The  "  advice  "  which  we  have  quoted  also 
breaks  a  cardinal  rule  of  school  management  by  making 
punishments  out  of  legitimate  school  tasks  ("  Charge  up 
a  lesson  against  him  and  ask  him  to  bring  it  in  next  morn- 
ing"). We  should  also  criticize  the  practice  of  having 
pupils  sit  by  the  teacher,  —  first,  because  it  is  usually 


CONTEMPORARY   SCHOOL   PENALTIES  207 

totally  ineffective  and  not  infrequently,  indeed,  a  source 
of  still  greater  disturbance  and  loss  of  authority ;  and, 
secondly,  because,  if  it  is  effective,  its  efficiency  depends 
upon  the  feeling  of  public  shame  and  humilation  which 
to  our  mind  is  just  as  abhorrent  as  corporal  punishment. 

The  withdrawal  of  privileges  is  another  means  of 
punishment  that  has  been  commonly  employed.  Dr. 
Taylor,  indeed,  bases  his  system  of  demerits  largely 
upon  this  factor.  If  a  monitorial  position  is  ardently 
desired  by  the  troublesome  pupil,  he  may  be  impelled 
to  earn  the  appointment  by  good  behavior.  If  it  is  not 
desired,  then  the  "  bribe  "  will  fail  of  its  desired  effect. 
The  granting  of  a  half  holiday  to  meritorious  pupils, 
or  the  privilege  of  early  dismissal,  is  sometimes  effective. 
In  the  New  York  system,  for  example,  "  good  "  pupils 
may  be  dismissed  early  on  Fridays.  We  do  not  protest 
against  these  devices  because  they  will  not  "  work," 
but  because  they  are,  in  essence,  "  bribes,"  and  we  believe 
that  any  method  of  school  discipline  which  is  based 
upon  this  policy  is  charged  with  dynamite.  The  policy 
is  likewise  to  be  condemned  because,  in  effect,  it  makes 
school  attendance  during  regular  school  hours  a  punish- 
ment. 

Conferring  with  parents  will  often  prove  a  most  suc- 
cessful means  of  solving  disciplinary  difficulties,  and  its 
efficacy  should  be  tested  by  teachers  much  more  fre- 
quently than  is  commonly  the  practice.  The  chief 
dangers  to  be  avoided  here  are  that  the  pupil  himself 
may  gain  the  idea  that  the  teacher  cannot  "  manage  " 


208  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

him,  and  that  a  parent  may  be  encouraged  to  deny  the 
right  of  the  teacher  to  administer  necessary  punish- 
ment. The  essential  relationship  of  the  teacher  as  in 
loco  parentis  should  never  be  surrendered. 

Suspension.  —  This  is  the  "  natural  "  punishment  for 
school  offenses,  —  a  loss  of  "  privilege  "  which  ought  to 
have  an  effective  "  sting."  The  difficulty  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  does  not  always  possess  this  virtue.  In 
handling  a  critical  situation,  it  is  often  necessary  for  the 
welfare  of  the  majority  to  send  pupils  from  school  and 
to  keep  them  from  school  until  reasonable  obedience, 
order,  and  industry  are  assured.  Where  the  compulsory 
attendance  laws  are  well  enforced,  the  pupil  of  school  age 
will  either  have  to  remain  in  school  or  be  committed  to  a 
reformatory,  and  where  the  right  kind  of  cooperation 
exists  between  the  school  authorities  and  the  juvenile 
courts,  it  is  often  a  simple  matter  to  settle  troublesome 
cases  by  the  expedient  of  suspension,  depending  upon  a 
wholesome  fear  of  serious  consequences  to  wheel  the 
recalcitrant  into  line.  In  some  cases,  however,  this 
cooperation  is  lacking.  Those  intrusted  with  the  admin- 
istration of  the  compulsory-attendance  law  will  not 
always  stand  behind  the  school  authorities;  they  will 
maintain  that  the  boy  or  the  girl  has  not  committed  an 
offense  which  would  justify  him  hi  being  characterized 
as  an  incorrigible,  although  he  may  be  so  troublesome  in 
school  as  to  make  him  a  source  of  constant  disorder.  It 
is,  after  all,  not  the  grave  derelictions  that  worry  the 
teacher ;  it  is  rather  the  little  annoyances,  —  the  halting 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       2OQ 

obedience,  the  sneaking  mischief,  the  crude  deceit  with 
regard  to  little  things,  and  the  constant  search  for  means 
of  making  trouble  that  will  not  be  so  serious  as  to  merit 
drastic  treatment,  but  which  none  the  less  gives  rise  in  the 
aggregate  to  nine  tenths  of  the  loss  in  school  efficiency 
that  must  be  attributed  to  disorder. 

It  is  our  belief  that,  where  the  right  of  corporal  punish- 
ment is  taken  away  from  the  teacher,  the  right  of  sus- 
pension should  be  so  clearly  safeguarded  that  these 
trivial  disturbances  can  be  adequately  met  by  this 
penalty.  It  is  hardly  befitting  a  teacher's  work  to  be 
compelled  to  resort  to  the  petty  and  ineffective  devices 
cited  above:  having  pupils  sit  by  her  side;  keeping 
elaborate  sets  of  merits  and  demerits  the  prize  or  penalty 
of  which  involves  a  monitorial  position  which  few  desire ; 
an  hour  cut  each  week  from  a  school  day  that  has 
already  been  shortened  pretty  close  to  the  vanishing 
point;  or  assigning  extra  lessons  which  all  children 
should  have  the  privilege  of  learning  if  they  are  worth 
learning. 

Reporting  Cases  of  Discipline  to  the  Principal.  —  The 
efficacy  of  this  policy  depends  very  obviously  upon  the 
attitude  and  the  efficiency  of  the  principal.  There  are 
some  schools  in  which  a  beginning  teacher  receives  just 
the  right  kind  of  support  in  just  the  right  amount; 
there  are  others  in  which  the  support  really  weakens  the 
classroom  teacher's  authority ;  and  there  are  still  others 
in  which  the  principal  believes  that  the  teacher  should 
be  left  to  work  out  his  or  her  own  salvation,  no  matter 


210  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

how  demoralized  the  classroom  may  become  in  the 
process.  Policies  differ  in  various  systems  of  schools. 
In  some,  there  is  an  effective  spirit  of  cooperation;  in 
others,  the  "  interference  "  of  the  principal  in  classroom 
discipline  is  disapproved  by  the  superintendent. 

Personally  it  is  the  writer's  belief  that  a  supervising 
principal  —  and  especially  a  man  who  is  placed  in 
charge  of  a  number  of  young  women  teachers  —  can 
earn  his  salary  in  no  better  way  than  by  giving  them 
help  and  support  in  the  disciplinary  control  of  their 
pupils.  He  cannot  afford  to  let  them  depend  upon  him 
exclusively,  but  he  can  demonstrate  some  wholesome 
lessons  in  the  attitude  which  boys  and  men  should  have 
toward  women.  He  should  see  that  the  authority  of 
the  teacher  is  not  permitted  to  become  ineffective  simply 
because  she  lacks  physical  strength,  and  he  should  re- 
member that  an  important  lesson  for  every  boy  to  learn 
is  that  he  cannot  with  impunity  be  disrespectful  to  any 
woman,  no  matter  how  great  the  provocation. 

The  writer  has  had  occasion  more  than  once  to  adminis- 
ter this  lesson  to  adolescent  boys.  He  recalls  one  boy  who 
was  sent  to  the  office  from  the  room  of  asharp-tongued  teacher, 
and  who  was  on  the  verge  of  rebellion,  because,  as  he  said, 
he  "could  not  stand  the  scoldings"  of  this  teacher,  and 
would  rather  "take  a  good  whipping"  than  be  subjected  to 
the  stinging  rebukes  that  she  administered.  His  ire  had 
been  aroused  and  he  had  replied  in  kind.  The  temptation 
was  great,  as  the  writer  knew  well  enough  —  but  the  neces- 
sity for  suffering  in  silence  was  even  greater.  A  long  talk 
ensued.  The  ideals  of  respect  for  womanhood  were  laid 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       211 

before  the  boy  just  as  clearly  as  the  writer  could  present 
them,  —  the  need  for  self-control  in  situations  of  this  type, 
the  contempt  that  the  world  has  for  the  man  who  fails  in 
self-mastery,  and  the  contempt  that  a  man  must  have  for 
himself  when  he  has  been  recreant  to  chivalric  ideals.  The 
attempt  to  teach  fundamental  lessons  through  a  preachment 
is  not  often  successful,  but  it  happened  to  be  in  this  case, 
and  the  boy  went  back  with  an  apology  given  in  the  right 
spirit.  It  was  a  lesson  not  listed  in  the  syllabus  on  "morals 
and  manners,"  but  a  lesson  that  every  boy  who  is  to  become 
a  gentleman  and  not  a  cad  must  learn  sooner  or  later,  and  the 
school  usually  offers  opportunities  for  its  effective  incul- 
cation. It  should  go  without  saying,  also,  that  the  teacher 
in  this  case  needed  an  admonition  of  somewhat  similar  tenor 
on  the  manifest  unfairness  of  making  cutting  remarks. 

The  Dangers  of  Weak  Sentimentalism  in  Doctrines 
of  Discipline.  —  A  very  serious  danger  to  the  welfare  of 
the  schools  (and  to  the  stamina  and  "  grain  "  of  the 
coming  generation)  lies  in  the  tendency  to  treat  dis- 
ciplinary problems  from  the  emotional  point  of  view. 
Sympathy  there  must  be,  as  we  have  hitherto  insisted, 
and  the  discussions  of  discipline  do  right  to  emphasize 
this  factor.  But  sentimentalism  there  must  not  be.  It 
is  here  that  the  advice  given  to  teachers  in  their  "  in- 
stitutes "  has  done  incalculable  injury  to  the  children 
of  the  land.  Teachers  have  been  led  into  quite  the 
wrong  attitude  by  maudlin  tales  of  the  boy  who  was 
punished  for  being  sleepy  and  who,  the  teacher  after- 
ward discovered,  had  been  sitting  up  all  night  with  his 
sick  mother;  of  the  poor  lad  who  was  treated  harshly 


212  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

for  stealing  a  fellow  pupil's  lunch,  when  later  investiga- 
tion proved  that  he  had  come  to  school  without  break- 
fast, and  perhaps  had  had  for  last  night's  supper  only  a 
crust  of  stale  bread ;  of  the  poor  girl  who  was  compelled 
to  remain  after  school  and  of  whom  it  later  developed 
that  her  father  thrashed  her  because  she  could  not  go 
home  in  time  to  do  the  housework,  —  the  recreant 
mother  having  left  for  parts  unknown.  Each  one  of 
these  cases  may  be  absolutely  true  in  its  details,  and  an 
occasional  reference  to  the  danger  of  injustice  in  dis- 
cipline is  certainly  justified.  But  continual  indulgence 
in  this  sort  of  pabulum  has  the  same  weakening  influence 
that  the  wishy-washy  Sunday  school  stories,  once  so  popu- 
lar, certainly  exerted.  And  in  a  great  many  instances, 
the  motive  of  the  institute  instructor  in  portraying  these 
sad  instances  is  not  to  instill  a  lesson,  but  rather  to 
produce  a  momentary  effect  by  a  truckling  appeal  to 
sentiment.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  cases  are  not 
always  true,  but  very  often  purely  imaginary,  and  re- 
membering that  the  majority  of  American  teachers 
receive  no  advice  regarding  discipline  except  that  which 
drips  down  from  the  institute  lecture  platform,  and  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation  should  be  plainly  apparent. 
We  have  known  young  teachers  to  return  from  these 
institutes  with  the  most  twisted  disciplinary  ideals 
imaginable,  afraid  to  make  even  the  most  lenient  re- 
quirements lest  they  commit  one  of  the  deadly  sins 
against  which  their  mentors  had  cautioned  them. 

There  is  needed,  then,  in  the  preparation  of  teachers 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       213 

and  especially  in  institute  instruction,  a  united  stand 
against  what  may  be  termed  the  fallacy  of  the  exceptional 
case.  It  is  the  besetting  sin  of  educational  books  of  the 
"  inspirational  "  type,  and  the  damage  that  it  does 
cannot  be  measured  —  except,  perhaps,  in  the  statistics 
showing  the  increase  in  disrespect  for  law. 

The  Place  and  Limits  of  Leniency  in  Discipline.  — 
There  are,  of  course,  occasions  when  apparent  offenses 
against  the  authority  of  the  school  must  be  either  over- 
looked or  forgiven.  There  are  occasions  when  the  pupil's 
realization  of  the  unworthy  character  of  his  misconduct 
is  so  keen  and  even  overwhelming  that  anything  in  the 
way  of  additional  punishment  is  unnecessary  either  for 
the  reform  of  the  individual  or  for  the  protection  of  the 
group.  But  there  are  also  certain  occasions  when 
leniency,  while  the  line  of  least  resistance,  is  quite  the 
wrong  policy. 

It  is  not  uncommon,  for  example,  for  a  teacher  to 
palliate  an  offense  when  the  offender  is  known  to  have 
been  tempted  into  the  commission  of  the  wrong  by 
others.  This  is  an  injustice  primarily  to  the  individual 
himself.  Certainly  the  tempters  should  be  required  to 
discharge  their  responsibility  in  the  matter,  but  the 
offender  himself  must  be  taught  that  wrong  done  at 
the  behest  of  others  does  not  free  the  agent  from  the 
chief  burden  of  guilt.  Again,  certain  acts  of  vandalism 
or  of  marked  disrespect  are  sometimes  excused  on  the 
plea  that  "  boys  will  be  boys  "  —  under  the  mistaken 
notion  that  just  because  a  boy  is  a  boy  he  is  to  be  en- 


214  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

couraged  in  making  a  general  nuisance  of  himself. 
Finally,  there  are  those  whose  attitude  toward  mis- 
conduct when  a  child  is  peevish  or  irritable  —  perhaps 
from  loss  of  sleep  or  from  malnutrition  —  or  from  "  per- 
secution "  —  is  eminently  adapted  to  develop  in  children 
the  habit  of  feigning  illness  or  imagining  that  people  are 
"  down  on  them,"  and  of  currying  sympathy  by  heart- 
rending tales  of  woe.  There  is  no  greater  all-round  nuis- 
ance than  the  man  or  the  woman  who  has  been  brought 
up  to  believe  that  he  or  she  can  be  irritable  and  disagree- 
able if  things  do  not  go  just  right.  Allowances  may  be 
made  for  individual  weaknesses  and  corrective  measures 
must  be  adjusted  to  individual  needs,  but  maudlin  senti- 
ment and  weak,  silly  leniency  probably  do  as  much  harm 
in  this  world  as  do  extreme  severity  and  rigor. 

In  an  address  to  teachers  on  the  subject  of  discipline,  we 
once  heard  an  educator  of  good  reputation  and  rather  wide 
prominence  make  this  statement:  " Above  all  you  must 
remember  that  every  child  at  a  certain  stage  of  his  develop- 
ment will  lie  a  little,  and  a  little  later  he  will  steal."  We 
listened  intently  to  discover  what  the  speaker  would  recom- 
mend in  the  way  of  treatment,  but  this  statement  closed  the 
topic,  and  the  audience,  —  made  up  largely  of  teachers 
scarcely  more  than  boys  and  girls  themselves,  —  went  from 
the  lecture  with  the  general  impression  that  this  tendency 
should  remain  uncorrected,  and  that  the  speaker  would  let 
children  lie  and  steal  until  they  had  got  the  impulse  out  of 
their  systems. 

Summary.  —  In  general  we  may  conclude  that  one  of 
the  first  duties  of  the  teacher  in  discipline  is  to  see  to  it 


CONTEMPORARY  SCHOOL  PENALTIES       21$ 

that  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  not  a  path  of  roses, 
and  that,  in  the  interest  of  the  pupil  himself,  as  well  as 
in  the  interest  of  the  group,  misconduct  is  corrected. 
But  it  is  also  clear  that  the  correction  will  vary  in  its 
intensity,  not  only  with  the  nature  and  the  gravity  of 
the  offense,  but  also  with  the  nature  of  the  individual. 
The  administration  of  discipline  must  take  into  account 
individual  differences,  and  these  differences  will  be  the 
theme  of  the  following  chapter. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  List  the  penalties  described  in  this  chapter  in  the 
order  of  their  effectiveness  in  school  discipline. 

2.  What  forms  of  misdemeanor  in  school  could  be  effec- 
tively met  by  imposing  the  penalty  of  "satiation." 

3.  Under  what  conditions  (if  any)  would  it  be  well  to  de- 
prive a  pupil  of  the  recess  period  as  a  penalty  for  misconduct  ? 

4.  Herbert  Spencer  advocated  leaving  punishment  to  the 
operation    of    the    "natural    consequences"    of    misdeeds. 
Name  some  school  misdemeanors  that  could  be  adequately 
treated  by  applying  this  theory. 

5.  What  school  penalties  have,  in  your  experience  as  a 
pupil  and  student,  been  most  effective?     Can  you  explain 
why  they  have  been  effective? 

6.  How  would  you  organize  a  sixth-grade  classroom  in 
order  to   make  certain  monitorial  positions  prizes  to  be 
sought  by  the  pupils,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  privileges  an 
effective  penalty  for  misconduct  ?    What  monitorial  positions 
would  you  establish,  and  how  would  you  distribute  them  ? 

7.  What   standards   would   you   apply   in   determining 
whether  an  offense  should  lead  to  light  punishment,  severe 
punishment,  or  no  punishment  at  all? 


CHAPTER 

THE  TROUBLESOME  TYPES 

IN  the  preceding  chapters,  the  discussion  has  had  to 
do  chiefly  with  the  unruly  school,  and  an  attempt  has 
been  made  to  classify  and  describe  the  ways  in  which 
this  unruly  spirit  may  be  curbed  and  a  more  wholesome 
spirit  engendered.  While  the  most  troublesome  prob- 
lems of  control  are  associated  with  this  task  of  reducing 
the  unruly  spirit  prevailing  among  the  majority  of  the 
pupils,  and  while  the  first  efforts  of  the  teacher  must  be 
directed  toward  these  problems,  other  difficulties  will 
appear  from  time  to  time  even  after  a  good  spirit  has 
been  established. 

The  Two  Functions  of  Discipline.  —  As  a  preliminary 
step  to  the  discussion  of  these  individual  cases,  it  will  be 
well  to  review  two  of  the  functions  that  disciplinary 
measures  must  fulfill.  In  the  first  place,  the  conditions 
that  are  essential  to  good  school  work  must  be  preserved. 
The  rights  of  the  many  must  not  be  invaded  or  invali- 
dated by  the  whims  or  the  caprice  of  the  few.  The 
group  must  be  protected  against  the  individual.  In  the 
second  place,  the  individual  must  be  protected  against 
himself,  —  against  the  impulses  and  desires  that  would 
interfere  with  his  growth  and  his  development. 

216 


THE   TROUBLESOME    TYPES  217 

The  distinction  here  drawn  should  be  explicitly  recog- 
nized in  school  practice.  There  are  many  expressions  and 
activities  among  the  individuals  of  the  pupil-group  that 
are  reprehensible  simply  and  solely  because  they  interfere 
with  the  rights  of  others,  —  they  are  inimical  to  the  con- 
ditions that  are  essential  to  order,  quiet,  and  industry; 
but  they  are  not,  in  themselves,  reprehensible.  Whispering 
and  note  passing  are  typical  examples  of  such  activities. 
Disturbances  in  the  classroom  may  be  quite  harmless  as 
regards  the  progress  of  the  individuals  making  the  disturb- 
ance. Rough  games  and  hand-to-hand  physical  combats 
in  the  school  yard  may  be  thoroughly  wholesome  and  bene- 
ficial to  the  individuals  concerned.  But  in  all  of  these  in- 
stances, the  rights  of  others  may  be  invaded,  and  this  fact 
may  serve  to  stamp  the  activities  as  antisocial  and  therefore 
as  reprehensible.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain 
expressions  and  activities  of  the  individual  which  would  be 
inimical  to  his  own  progress,  but  which  could  hardly  be  said 
to  interfere  in  any  direct  way  with  the  welfare  and  progress 
of  the  group.  The  idleness  of  the  individual,  for  example, 
unless  it  leads  to  distracting  mischief  (as  it  is  quite  likely 
to  do),  may  be  free  from  direct  social  consequences,  and  yet 
it  is  obviously  a  wrong  to  the  individual  to  permit  him  to 
persist  in  this  idleness.  "Cheating"  is,  in  general,  to  be 
looked  upon  as  an  individual  defect,  injuring  primarily  and 
directly  only  the  individual  himself;  stealing,  on  the  other 
hand,  interferes  unequivocally  with  the  rights  of  others. 

The  distinction  is  somewhat  analogous  to  that  made  in 
law  between  "crimes"  and  "misdemeanors"  on  the  one 
hand,  and  "vices"  upon  the  other  hand.  Crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors may  be  vices  as  well,  but  there  are  some  crimes 
that  could  scarcely  be  called  vices  and  some  vices  that  the 
law  does  not  recognize  as  crimes.  A  crime  or  a  misde- 
meanor is  an  offense  committed  against  the  state,  —  that 


2l8  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

is,  against  organized  society ;  and  society  itself  determines 
what  acts  are  to  be  recognized  as  offenses  against  itself. 
Thus  the  code  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors  varies  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  among  different  social  groups 
in  the  same  generation.  The  lonians,  for  example,  made 
it  a  crime  not  to  laugh  occasionally,  and  punished  the  crimi- 
nal with  exile.  The  modern  world  considers  excessive  gravity 
as  a  vice  at  worst,  and  at  times  in  the  world's  history  it  has 
even  been  looked  upon  as  a  virtue.  When  printing  was 
first  introduced  into  Europe  it  was  looked  upon  as  anti- 
social, and  to  print  a  book  in  France  during  the  second 
quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  to  commit  a  crime 
for  which  the  death  penalty  could  be  exacted.  Vices,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  looked  upon,  not  as  wrongs  against  the 
state  or  against  society,  but  simply  and  solely  as  individual 
faults.  Society  may  condemn  them,  but  it  does  not  label 
them  as  crimes  or  misdemeanors  unless  it  is  convinced  that 
the  rights  of  others  are  directly  imperiled.1 

While  the  discipline  of  the  law  is  concerned  only  with 
crimes  and  misdemeanors,  —  that  is,  only  with  offenses 
that  have  been  distinctly  recognized  as  against  society, 
—  the  discipline  of  the  school  is  equally  concerned  both 
with  activities  that  invade  the  rights  of  others  and  with 
activities  that  are  primarily  reprehensible  because  of 
their  effect  upon  the  individual.  And  the  school,  too, 
must  include  tinder  each  head  types  of  misconduct  that 
could  not  be  recognized  either  by  the  law  as  misde- 
meanors or  crimes,  or  by  society  generally  as  vices.  In 
other  words,  there  are  specific  "  school  misdemeanors  " 

1  Cf.  F.  H.  Wines,  Punishment  and  Reformation,  New  York,  1895, 
ch.  ii. 


THE    TROUBLESOME    TYPES  2IQ 

and  specific  "  school  vices  "  which  must  be  recognized 
and  corrected.  Whispering  under  certain  conditions  is 
a  specific  school  misdemeanor ;  disobedience  is  a  school 
misdemeanor ;  inattention  and  "  scamping  "  one's  work 
are  specific  school  vices. 

The  Troublesome  Types.  —  The  writer  recently  asked 
three  superintendents  of  large  city  school  systems  to 
give  him  the  names  of  the  three  teachers  in  each  system 
who  were  most  competent  from  the  point  of  view  of 
"  discipline."  He  then  asked  each  of  these  teachers  to 
state  how  many  pupils  under  his  or  her  charge  would  be 
classed  as  "  troublesome."  The  answers  indicate  very 
clearly  that,  even  in  classrooms  where  order  and  dis- 
cipline are  most  commendable,  troublesome  cases  do 
occur.  The  proportions  vary,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that, 
in  every  classroom  of  from  thirty  to  forty  pupils,  at 
least  three  or  four  boys  and  one  or  two  girls  will  be 
relatively  hard  to  control.  This  suggests,  among  other 
things,  the  essential  injustice  of  leading  young  teachers 
to  believe  that  the  presence  of  troublesome  pupils  re- 
flects ignominious  discredit  upon  themselves  as  teachers, 
—  a  policy  which  has  often  succeeded  effectually  in 
covering  up  cases  thai  need  serious  attention.  It  also 
suggests  the  possibility  of  grouping  these  troublesome 
cases  into  "  types  "  marked  off  from  one  another  by 
certain  definite  characteristics,  and  associated  with  cer- 
tain definite  kinds  of  treatment.  This  represents  a  field 
of  educational  investigation  not  yet  exploited.  It  is 
essential,  however,  to  recognize  the  need  of  studying 


220  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

individual  cases,  and  while  a  thoroughly  scientific  and 
trustworthy  classification  of  types  cannot  be  made  at 
the  present  time,  something  may  be  done  to  indicate  to 
the  young  teacher  some  of  the  symptoms  to  look  for 
and  some  of  the  steps  that  may  be  taken  in  dealing  with 
the  various  groups. 

The  Stubborn  Pupil.  —  This  is  perhaps  the  most 
troublesome  type,  —  the  more  so  because  the  highly 
refractory  disposition  may  go  hand  in  hand  with  a  goodly 
measure  of  ability.  There  is  a  current  theory  that  the 
lack  of  docility  is  a  promising  trait :  a  favorite  metaphor 
compares  the  refractory  child  with  the  diamond  in  the 
rough  which  owes  to  its  hardness  the  possibility  of 
"  taking  "  a  high  polish.  There  is  possibly  a  germ  of 
truth  in  the  theory,  but  it  should  not  be  advanced  —  as 
it  so  often  is,  —  to  palliate  weak-kneed  and  least-resist- 
ance methods  of  dealing  with  such  children.  The 
diamond  still  in  the  rough  has  no  brilliance ;  its  facets 
must  be  fashioned  and  tooled  if  they  are  to  give  forth 
their  luster.  And  while  the  refractory  child  may  be  a 
genius  in  embryo,  the  chances  are  that  the  proper  sort 
of  discipline  is  essential  to  make  the  genius  dynamic 
rather  than  potential.  This  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  the  stubborn  child  must  be  conquered. 

The  prime  requisite  here  is  persistence.  There  must  be 
neither  compromise  nor  surrender.  The  task  assigned  must 
be  done,  no  matter  how  disagreeable  is  the  experience  of 
compelling  its  doing.  The  writer  once  witnessed,  at  suc- 
cessive stages  of  the  process,  the  conquest  of  a  self-willed 


THE    TROUBLESOME    TYPES  221 

child.  This  child  was  three  or  four  years  old,  and  had  been 
permitted  to  cut  papers  on  the  promise  that  he  would  clean 
up  the  debris.  When  he  had  tired  of  the  cutting,  he  was 
told  to  pick  up  the  scraps,  but  he  at  once  rebelled.  The 
mother  could  easily  have  completed  the  task,  but  that  would 
only  mean,  of  course,  a  sanctioning  of  the  disobedience,  and 
postpone  until  a  later  date  the  inevitable  conflict.  The 
mother  was  too  wise  to  adopt  this  "easy"  solution.  The 
storm  broke  about  noon.  It  was  raging  when  the  writer 
left  the  house  at  one  o'clock.  At  three  when  he  returned 
it  was  still  in  progress;  a  few  of  the  papers  had  been  col- 
lected, but  the  floor  was  still  littered.  There  was  no  sign 
of  the  breaking  of  the  clouds.  He  left  at  four,  and  when 
he  returned  at  six,  the  floor  was  clean,  the  boy  was  playing 
happily  and  serenely,  and  the  mother  was  engaged  in  her 
household  work.  Inquiry  revealed  the  fact  that  for  nearly 
five  hours  a  battle  royal  had  raged,  —  and  then,  suddenly 
and  apparently  without  warning,  the  capitulation  had  come. 
There  are  those,  of  course,  who  will  protest  against  this 
drastic  method  of  "breaking"  a  child's  will,  but  between 
this  and  the  ineffectiveness  of  surrender  or  compromise  there 
can  be  no  reasonable  question. 

The  teacher  with  thirty  or  forty  pupils  under  his  or 
her  control  cannot,  of  course,  take  the  time  of  the  class 
to  deal  with  pupils  who  "  balk  "  at  certain  requirements 
or  assignments,  but  the  necessity  of  persistence  and  the 
suicidal  effect  of  surrender  are  no  less  clearly  indicated. 
While  less  heroic  measures  should  be  tried  first,  there  is 
every  justification,  if  these  fail,  for  retaining  the  pupil 
after  hours  until  he  accedes  to  the  request  or  command  in 
question,  or  even  of  resorting  to  corporal  punishment 
or  to  suspension  until  he  learns  to  obey. 


222  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

What  has  been  said  should  not  be  taken  in  dispar- 
agement of  "  diplomatic  "  and  "  tactful  "  methods  of 
dealing  with  refractory  cases,  in  so  far  as  these  do  not 
involve  surrender  or  compromise.  In  general,  however, 
what  most  people  mean  by  diplomacy  in  referring  to 
problems  of  this  type  is  simply  letting  the  stubborn 
individual  have  his  own  way  and  making  the  best  of  it. 
It  is  well  to  be  diplomatic,  but  the  limits  of  the  practice 
are  clearly  indicated.  Diplomacy  should  keep  one  from 
needlessly  arousing  antagonism  and  from  needlessly 
irritating  the  individual  into  a  refractory  mood.  It 
should  not  be  extended  to  indulging  a  whim  under  the 
impression  that  the  favor  of  indulgence  will  be  repaid  in 
later  repression  and  obedience.  It  is  well  in  other  words 
to  insist  that  the  boy  do  his  chores  before  permitting  him 
to  go  fishing.  It  is  a  fatal  kind  of  diplomacy  to  let  him 
go  fishing  first  in  the  fond  hope  that  he  will  so  thoroughly 
appreciate  the  kindness  that  he  will  come  back  early  and 
finish  his  work. 

It  is  our  belief  that  a  goodly  proportion  of  the  "  whiners" 
in  the  world  owe  their  whining  and  petulant  dispositions 
in  part  to  weak  methods  of  control  in  childhood.  They 
then  learned  that  a  certain  type  of  obstinacy  usually 
gained  their  point,  —  whining  and  "  fussing  "  and  mak- 
ing themselves  disagreeable  until  the  opposition  was 
worn  out.  This  kind  of  false  discipline  is  more  frequently 
met  with  in  the  home  than  in  the  school,  but  it  is  not 
unknown  in  the  latter  institution.  We  have  a  distinct 
image  of  a  little  fellow  in  the  second  grade  who  was 


THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES  223 

obstinate  by  nature,  and  who  had  fortified  his  obstinacy 
by  an  unusual  development  of  the  art  of  whining  and 
wheedling.  If  he  could  not  have  his  own  way,  he  would 
not  rage;  he  would  "  sulk."  He  came  from  the  most 
destitute  family  in  the  school  district,  and  for  this  reason 
both  pupils  and  teachers  pampered  him,  —  a  type  of 
tragedy  that  has  not  got  into  the  story  books! 

The  Haughty  Pupil.  —  This  type  is  much  more  hope- 
ful than  the  stubborn  type.  Occasional  trouble  is 
experienced,  however,  in  holding  such  pupils  to  the 
standards  of  conduct  and  achievement  that  must  be 
made  common  to  all.  The  haughty  individual  has  an 
overweening  sense  of  his  own  superiority,  and  in  the  case 
of  children  this  idea  is  very  likely  to  have  been  nurtured 
and  intensified  by  the  ideals  and  practices  of  the  home 
training.  If  the  public  school  means  anything  as  a 
nursery  of  democratic  ideals,  it  means  that  absolute 
equality  of  opportunity  must  prevail,  and  this  implies 
that  no  exceptions  can  be  made  in  the  application  of 
standards.  Eminence  in  school  life  must  come  as  the 
reward  of  exceptional  individual  ability  as  testified  by 
individual  achievement;  and  the  individual  seeking 
eminence  of  this  type  must  do  more  than  his  share  in  the 
collective  enterprises,  not  less  than  his  share.  He  must 
stand  out  from  his  fellows  because  he  has  demonstrated 
his  ability  to  bear  a  heavier  burden,  and  not  because 
the  extrinsic  factors  of  birth  and  social  station  relieve 
him  from  responsibilities  that  the  humbler  and  less 
fortunate  must  bear. 


224  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

Fortunately  in  most  American  families  this  wholesome 
point  of  view  prevails ;  but  there  are  some  cases  in  which 
prominent  and  influential  parents  expect  the  school  to 
give  to  their  children  special  privileges  and  special  favors, 
especially  in  the  way  of  exemptions  from  stated  duties. 
The  teacher  or  the  principal  who  truckles  to  these  de- 
mands does  so  at  the  cost  of  his  professional  self-respect 
—  and  more  often  than  not  suffers  materially,  for,  while 
the  people  as  a  whole  may  be  trusted  loyally  to  support 
measures  that  are  just  and  equitable,  there  is  nothing 
that  will  shorten  the  tenure  of  a  teacher  or  a  principal 
more  certainly  than  an  effort  to  gam  the  support  of  this 
or  that  influential  citizen  through  showing  special  favors 
to  his  children. 

Teachers  who  serve  in  districts  where  rich  and  poor  live 
in  close  proximity  and  send  their  children  to  the  same  school 
are  often  approached  by  the  wealthier  parents  to  excuse 
pupils  from  school  for  trivial  reasons,  —  attending  parties, 
going  to  the  theater,  and  the  like.  The  attitude  of  these 
parents  is  well  illustrated  by  a  mother  who  approached  a 
principal  with  a  request  of  this  type.  She  listened  im- 
patiently while  the  rules  of  school  and  the  necessity  for  an 
impartial  administration  were  explained.  "But,"  she  ob- 
jected, "these  rules  are  made  for  the  ragamuffins  who  come 
to  this  school.  They  are  not  made  for  the  children  of  good 
families.  Of  course  these  poorer  children  must  be  kept  in 
school,  for  they  will  be  subject  to  bad  influences  on  the  street 
and  probably  also  at  home ;  but  our  children  do  not  belong 
to  this  class."  Further  argument  seemed  to  be  unavailing, 
and  the  mother  left  in  a  "huff,"  —  but  her  daughter  re- 
mained in  school. 


THE    TROUBLESOME   TYPES  225 

The  Self-complacent  Pupil.  —  The  haughty  pupil  can 
ordinarily  be  effectively  appealed  to  on  the  basis  of  his 
pride,  but  the  self-complacent  child  is  difficult  to  manage 
chiefly  because  he  will  not  readily  respond  to  this  or  any 
other  stimulus.  He  is  satisfied  with  his  attainments, 
even  though  they  be  mediocre.  His  utter  lack  of  shame 
or  remorse  when  he  fails  is  often  pitiable  to  note.  He  is 
content  to  accept  defeat,  for  defeat  has  no  sting  for  him. 
Nothing  will  imperil  his  self-satisfaction,  and  he  is  likely 
to  go  through  life  working  very  far  below  his  real  ability. 
It  is  in  cases  of  this  type  that  the  second  problem  of 
discipline  —  to  save  the  individual  from  himself  - 
becomes  of  prime  importance. 

The  treatment  "  indicated  "  for  the  self-complacent 
pupil  is  simple  enough  in  theory,  but  far  from  simple  in 
application.  It  involves  a  continual  incitement  to 
higher  standards.  The  devices  of  rivalry  and  emulation 
must  be  called  upon  in  a  degree  that  would  be  quite 
unnecessary  with  the  normal  child,  and  perhaps  even 
harmful  with  the  hypersensitive  child.  The  self-com- 
placent child,  if  (as  is  often  the  case)  he  has  a  goodly 
measure  of  ability,  must  be  shown  how  far  he  is  below 
attainments  of  others.  Here  the  "  scales "  already 
referred  to  may  play  an  important  r61e.  The  "  individ- 
ual assignment "  may  also  be  employed  with  good 
results,  provided  that  enough  competition  is  added  to 
keep  the  assignment  from  being  "  scamped." 

The  Irresponsible  Pupil.  —  This  type  has  many 
characteristics  in  common  with  the  self-complacent 


226  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

pupil,  but  is  likely  to  be  more  "  flighty  "  and  "  efferves- 
cent." The  irresponsible  pupil  cannot  be  depended  upon 
to  carry  out  directions  or  to  be  faithful  to  a  trust.  He 
shirks  his  duties  and  "  scamps  "  his  work.  Like  self- 
complacency,  this  irresponsible  attitude  is  likely  to  grow 
upon  itself  and  to  become  the  source  of  serious  trouble  in 
later  life ;  consequently,  a  serious  problem  of  the  early 
training  is  to  counteract  this  unfortunate  tendency. 

There  is  no  "  royal  road  "  to  this  goal.  Responsibil- 
ity is  invariably  an  outcome  of  experience,  and  the  prob- 
lem is  to  provide  experiences  that  will  engender  it. 
The  older  children  in  large  families  get  the  requisite 
training  through  numberless  experiences  in  which  they 
must  render  a  strict  accounting  for  the  care  of  younger 
brothers  and  sisters.  It  is  impossible  to  reproduce  in 
the  school  conditions  equally  rigorous,  but  a  great  deal 
may  be  done  in  seeing  to  it  that  assigned  tasks  are  faith- 
fully executed,  and  especially  that  the  child  be  led  gradu- 
ally to  work  for  longer  and  longer  periods  independently 
of  the  direct  oversight  of  the  teacher.  Eternal  vigilance 
here,  as  in  dealing  with  most  of  these  troublesome  types, 
is  the  price  that  must  be  paid  for  success.  As  one  very 
successful  teacher  reports,  "The  only  treatment  that 
I  have  found  to  be  effective  in  the  case]  of  irresponsible 
children  is  constant  vigilance  and  strictness  " ;  and  an- 
other writes  after  "  Irresponsible,"  the  two  words 
"  Strict  discipline." 

Enlightening  this  constant  rigor  of  discipline,  however, 
there  should  be  with  children,  in  the  upper  grades  at 


THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES  227 

least,  some  effort  toward  generalizing  the  virtues  that 
the  discipline  emphasizes.  Reference  may  be  made  to 
anecdotes  which  show  clearly  the  meaning  of  responsibil- 
ity. It  is  essential  that  these  be  presented  artfully  if 
they  are  to  fulfill  their  important  function.  Too  fre- 
quently these  anecdotes  fail  to  affect  the  conduct  of  the 
pupils  because  the  characters  whose  actions  are  depicted 
are  cast  in  too  heroic  a  mold.  The  child  sees  nothing  in 
common  between  the  conditions  that  are  being  described 
and  his  own  life.  The  stories  interest  him,  but  they 
do  not  inspire  him  to  similar  conduct.  The  very  best 
anecdotes  for  this  purpose  are  the  true  stories  of  faithful 
and  heroic  conduct  upon  the  part  of  normal  boys  and 
girls.  Collections  of  these  are  now  available,  and  may 
be  used,  we  believe,  with  very  good  effect.1  Care  must 
be  taken  not  to  "  preach  "  or  ostentatiously  to  "  point 
the  moral." 

The  "  Boy  Scouts  "  organization  represents  a  well- 
matured  plan  for  developing  ideals  of  responsibility,  and 
this  plan  is  especially  to  be  commended  because  it 
recognizes  the  necessity  of  relating  the  moral  virtues  to 
the  simple  affairs  of  everyday  life.  Its  efficacy  is  to  be 
explained  in  part  by  the  fact  that  it  enlists  in  the  service 
of  the  moral  and  social  ideals  the  boy's  strong,  instinctive 
interests  in  hunting,  camping,  and  mimic  warfare.  The 

1  The  methods  of  moral  instruction  devised  by  Mr.  F.  J.  Gould  per- 
haps illustrate  most  clearly  the  principles  that  we  have  in  mind,  and 
the  anecdotes  collected  by  Mr.  Gould  are  especially  commendable  from 
this  point  of  view.  See  also  Sneath  and  Hodges,  Golden  Rule  Series  of 
Readers,  and  Moral  Training  in  School  and  Home  (New  York,  1912). 


228  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

privileges  that  the  organization  affords  operate  as  incen- 
tives to  the  fulfillment  of  the  conditions,  and  among  these 
conditions  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  include  the  virtues  that 
we  have  been  discussing.1 

The  Morose  Pupil.  —  This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
types  to  deal  with  effectively.  The  morose  pupil  is 
likely  to  meet  the  best-intentioned  advances  sullenly 
and  suspiciously.  He  wears  a  "  chip  on  his  shoulder  " 
habitually.  His  constant  attitude  is  one  of  antagonism, 
and  the  ultimate  danger  of  permitting  the  attitude  to 
grow  upon  itself  is  that  his  own  antagonism  incites  a  like 
attitude  in  others. 

The  first  effort  of  the  teacher,  therefore,  should  be  to 
preserve  at  all  costs  the  "  objective  attitude,"  —  to  avoid 
falling  into  an  antagonistic  attitude  toward  the  pupil. 
"  Meet  the  sullenness  with  unvarying  good  nature"  is 
the  tenor  of  the  reports  from  successful  teachers  regarding 
the  treatment  of  this  type.  This,  however,  is  only  the 
initial  step.  Methods  must  be  devised  that  will  lead 
the  morose  child  gradually  "  out  of  himself."  He  must 
become  absorbed  in  his  work,  and  here  the  "  individual 
assignment "  becomes  of  large  importance,  and  among 
these  assignments  should  be  a  liberal  admixture  of  special 
school  responsibilities.  As  one  teacher  says,  "In  dealing 
with  a  morose  child,  I  have  found  the  most  effective  plan 
to  be  that  of  investing  him  with  special  responsibilities. 

*It  is  possible  to  organize  Boy  Scout  camps  in  connection  with 
schools.  For  directions  as  to  procedure  in  the  matter,  address  the 
Chief  Scout  Executive,  200  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 


THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES  22Q 

By  calling  upon  him  for  help  in  any  emergency,  he  is 
made  to  feel  that  he  is  indispensable.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that  the  dignities  of  his  office  will  admit  of  no 
outbursts  of  temper,  and  I  try  to  overlook  any  unfortunate 
slips  of  that  kind."  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  an 
overplus  of  "  wheedling  "  is  to  be  avoided  in  dealing  with 
these  cases.  The  "  whining,"  petulant  attitude  may  be 
easily  developed,  and  this  should  be  avoided  at  all  costs. 

The  Hypersensitive  Pupil.  —  The  "  touchy,"  sensitive 
child  is  sometimes  a  neglected  problem,  —  and  unfor- 
tunately so,  for  his  weakness  is  especially  likely  to  become 
a  serious  handicap  in  his  later  life.  He  is  not  ordinarily 
"  troublesome  "  in  the  sense  that  the  mischievous  and 
the  stubborn  child  are  troublesome.  Indeed,  if  he  were 
rather  more  of  a  "  problem,"  matters  might  go  better 
with  him.  He  is  likely  to  shrink  from  the  companion- 
ship of  the  normal  children,  and  to  be  satisfied  with 
friends  of  his  own  kind,  consequently  he  is  likely  to  miss 
the  wholesome  discipline  that  comes  from  the  rough-and- 
ready  give-and-take  of  boy  life.  His  sensitiveness  is 
also  likely  to  make  him  unusually  docile,  and  the  teacher, 
finding  in  him  some  one  who  never  disobeys  and  for  whose 
incitement  or  correction  a  mere  nod  or  at  most  a  word  is 
sufficient,  will  show  him  favors  that  may  still  further 
widen  the  gulf  between  him  and  the  children  with  whom 
he  should  associate  on  an  equal  footing. 

Children  of  this  type  distinctly  need  "  hardening  " 
experiences.  They  should  be  encouraged  to  engage  in 
the  sports  of  the  others,  and,  if  possible,  introduced 


230  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

to  some  wholesome  and  vigorous  activity  in  which  they 
can  "  shine."  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  make 
such  a  child  too  conscious  of  his  weakness,  for  this 
would  only  aggravate  the  attitude  that  needs  correction. 
"  Scolding  "  children  of  this  sort  is  a  negative  meas- 
ure that  is  commonly  unavailing.  Encouragement  and 
praise,  when  merited,  are  much  more  effective. 

The  hypersensitive  child  is  all  too  likely  to  evince 
symptoms  that  will  be  characterized  by  his  fellows  as 
cowardice.  This  opprobrium  is  scarcely  deserved,  for 
such  children  are  not  often  "  sneaks,"  -  they  under- 
stand the  social  stigma  that  attaches  to  behavior  of  that 
type  too  well,  and  they  shrink  from  the  stigma  as  a  real 
"  sneak  "  does  not.  They  will  not  readily  indulge  in 
physical  combat,  however,  for  they  shrink  also  from  defeat. 
It  is  mental  rather  than  physical  pain  which  they  find  it 
so  hard  to  bear.  We  once  knew  the  mother  of  a  child 
of  this  sort  to  lock  the  door  on  her  offspring  when  he 
ran  to  the  house  from  a  gamin  who  had  chased  him  down 
the  street.  The  mother  noted  that  the  gamin  and  her 
own  boy  were  "  two  of  a  size  "  and  she  believed  that  the 
latter  could  not  learn  on  any  better  occasion  to  take 
blows  and  give  them.  She  called  to  him  to  turn  about 
and  face  the  tormentor.  Between  the  implied  threat 
in  her  command  and  the  fear  of  physical  punishment 
from  his  fellow,  the  choice  was  clear,  and  the  boy  turned 
on  his  antagonist  with  clinched  fists  and  teeth  shut  tight. 
It  was  a  critical  moment,  but  his  courage  held,  and  he 
went  into  the  fray  with  a  feeling  quite  new  to  him.  He 


THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES  231 

emerged  with  a  bloody  nose  and  a  black  eye  —  but  proud 
and  triumphant.  It  was  a  turning  point  in  his  life,  — 
precisely  the  kind  of  lesson  that  he  needed.  The  writer 
in  his  experience  as  a  teacher  and  principal  has  often 
been  tempted  to  give  boys  who,  were  subject  to  torment 
from  their  fellows  the  same  Spartan  advice,  and  on  one 
or  two  occasions  has  yielded  to  the  temptation;  but, 
unfortunately  for  this  type  of  child,  school  conditions 
forbid  the  encouragement  of  physical  combat.  The 
hypersensitive  children  must,  consequently,  be  protected 
from  persecution,  even  though  it  would  be  much  better 
for  them  to  learn  to  protect  themselves. 

The  Deceitful  Pupil.  —  We  come  now  to  a  more  serious 
form  of  individual  weakness.  Here  a  serious  mistake  is 
to  permit  efforts  toward  reform  to  be  handicapped  by 
the  belief  that  the  unfortunate  tendencies  express  an 
inherent  depravity.  Deceit  and  "  cunning  "  are  to  be 
looked  upon  as  instinctive  traits ;  every  normal  indi- 
vidual will  evince  the  tendencies  under  certain  condi- 
tions. In  the  abnormal  cases,  the  tendency  is  unusually 
strong,  either  through  inheritance  or  through  the  in- 
fluence of  experience.  The  child  who  finds  that  he  can 
deceive  successfully  will  inevitably  practice  the  art. 

Undoubtedly  the  most  favorable  time  to  correct  the 
defect  is  in  very  early  childhood.  If  from  infancy  the 
practices  are  invariably  met  with  discouragement,  — 
if  they  are  constantly  associated  with  painful  conse- 
quences, —  they  will  die  a  natural  death.  When  they 
persist  into  school  life,  the  treatment  is  more  difficult, 


232  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

but  the  principle  is  the  same.  The  conditions  of  school 
life  should  reduce  the  opportunities  for  deceit  to  a  mini- 
mum, and  where  these  opportunities  are  necessarily 
present,  —  as  in  examinations  and  tests,  for  example,  - 
the  supervision  should  be  so  close  that  lapses  will  run 
small  chance  of  remaining  undetected.  There  is  good 
reason,  also,  for  attaching  to  these  lapses  a  serious  stigma, 
but  one  must  avoid  inducing  a  permanent  feeling  of 
shame  or  a  humiliating  loss  of  self-respect.  Along  with 
this  should  go  an  appeal  to  the  dormant  ideals  of  honor 
and  fair  play.  Such  an  appeal  may  be  unsuccessful 
at  the  outset,  but  this  should  not  preclude  the  attempt. 
Placing  a  child  "  on  honor  "  may  sometimes  be  the  most 
effective  measure  that  could  be  taken  against  the  tendency 
to  deceive,  and,  by  the  same  token,  excessive  suspicion 
and  constant  watchfulness  may  simply  serve  as  a  chal- 
lenge to  cunning  and  evasion.  To  steer  clear  of  both 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  here  requires  a  type  of  skill  that 
usually  comes  only  through  the  discipline  of  experience. 
The  young  teacher,  however,  will  do  better  to  err  on  the 
side  of  watchfulness  than  on  the  side  of  neglect.  The 
most  serious  situation  is  one  in  which  deceit  and  evasion 
are  practiced  without  detection  and  to  the  progressive 
demoralization  of  the  pupil  body. 

The  Vicious  Pupil.  — Here  we  meet  the  type  that  could, 
perhaps,  be  consistently  characterized  as  "  depraved." 
Where  these  pupils  are  found  in  the  school,  they  are 
usually  the  product  of  an  unfortunate  heredity  and  an 
equally  unfortunate  environment.  But  even  though 


THE    TROUBLESOME    TYPES  .  233 

the  heredity  may  be  clearly  and  unequivocally  bad,  the 
attitude  of  fatalism  should  be  strenuously  avoided. 
Traits  that  seem  hopeless  at  the  outset  often  yield  to 
the  right  sort  of  treatment.  An  unfortunate  hereditary 
"  diathesis  "  must  be  met  and  counteracted  in  the  moral 
and  mental  life  precisely  as  in  the  physical  life  by  proc- 
esses of  discipline  much  more  severe  than  the  normal 
individual  will  require.  And  by  "  severe  "  in  this  connec- 
tion, we  do  not  mean  "  harsh  "  or  "  cruel."  Far  from 
it.  Very  often,  the  kind  of  treatment  that  will  be  most 
effective  is  that  which  the  home  has  never  represented, 
-  a  type  of  treatment  characterized  by  evidences  of 
sympathy,  care,  and  affection.  Coupled  with  this 
must  be  a  measure  of  firmness  and  decision  which  will 
effectually  discourage  the  tendency  to  "  work "  the 
sympathizer,  —  for  vicious  children  are  sometimes 
adepts  in  this  art,  and  the  young  teacher  especially 
needs  to  be  on  his  or  her  guard  lest  his  well-intentioned 
measures  defeat  their  own  purpose  most  disastrously. 
When  we  say,  then,  that  the  treatment  must  be  "  severe  " 
we  mean  that  it  must  be  unusually  persistent,  unusually 
patient,  unusually  intelligent,  and  unusually  cautious. 
It  must  not  be  discouraged  with  apparent  failure,  but 
at  the  same  time  it  must  not  become  somnolent  through 
apparent  success.  It  must  take  account  of  all  possible 
knowledge  that  can  be  gained  from  a  study  of  the  home 
environment,  of  the  practices,  habits,  interests,  and 
abilities  of  the  individual. 

Weak  sentimentalism  is  dangerous  at  all  points  in 


234  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

the  administration  of  discipline,  but  nowhere  more 
notably  than  in  dealing  with  vicious  pupils.  The  teacher 
has  been  exhorted  to  "  love  "  the  bad  boy,  —  as  if  love 
were  something  that  could  be  given  or  withheld  at  com- 
mand. To  single  out  the  vicious  child  as  the  especial 
object  of  affection  is  to  risk  placing  a  premium  upon 
unsocial  conduct.  To  give  refractory  pupils  unusual 
privileges  and  prerogatives  in  order  to  gain  their  good 
will  is  a  plain  case  of  bribing  them  to  be  good ;  to  make 
a  duty  appear  to  the  undiscriminating  mind  of  child- 
hood as  a  privilege  to  be  given  or  withheld  at  pleasure 
is  the  last  word  in  disciplinary  inefficiency.  But  when 
children  have  failed  to  receive  at  home  the  affection  that 
the  normal  child  craves,  expressions  of  interest  in  them 
and  sympathy  for  them  may  work  a  miracle  of  trans- 
formation. 

There  are,  of  course,  different  varieties  of  depravity, 
and  not  all  vicious  children  come  from  homes  in  which 
they  have  been  neglected.  The  child  may  have  become 
demoralized  through  indulgence  and  over-solicitude,  and 
in  this  case  he  needs  the  sympathy  of  the  teacher  just 
as  clearly  as  does  the  child  from  the  mean  and  depraved 
home.  But  the  sympathy  here,  while  just  as  real, 
expresses  itself  hi  a  quite  different  fashion.  As  Stanley 
Hall  has  so  well  expressed  it,  the  child  who  has  been 
"over-individualized"  at  home  must  be  "under-indi- 
vidualized "  in  school,  and  vice  versa. 

The  problem  of  sex-hygiene  has  recently  been  freely  dis- 
cussed from  the  point  of  view  of  school  practice,  and  several 


THE    TROUBLESOME   TYPES  235 

attempts  have  been  made  to  introduce  into  the  school  pro- 
gram an  effective  type  of  sex  instruction.  It  is  too  early  as 
yet  to  conclude  as  to  the  practicability  of  attempting  to  solve 
this  problem  through  the  agencies  of  public  education.  In 
the  first  place,  the  nature  of  the  sex  impulse  is  not  well 
understood  even  by  specialists  in  sex  psychology  and  pa- 
thology. A  great  deal  needs  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  investi- 
gation and  research  before  measures  are  initiated  which  would 
have  so  wide  and  pervasive  an  influence  as  is  involved  in 
making  sex  instruction  a  part  of  the  elementary  or  high  school 
programs.  In  the  second  place,  as  the  race  has  long  im- 
plicitly recognized,  the  raising  of  sex  matters  to  the  fore- 
ground of  consciousness  is  likely  to  result  in  perversions 
and  evils  that  might  otherwise  never  be  suggested.  There 
is,  indeed,  no  phase  of  life  more  quickly  and  fatally  respon- 
sive to  suggestion  than  this.  In  the  third  place,  the  limita- 
tions  of  the  teaching  population  in  respect  of  experience  and 
maturity  constitute  an  element  of  danger  in  carrying  out 
through  the  public  schools  a  propaganda  of  sex  reform. 
Teachers  who  are  scarcely  more  than  boys  and  girls  them- 
selves are  obviously  unfitted  to  be  intrusted  with  the  deli- 
cate task  which  such  instruction  involves.  A  far  better 
method  of  attacking  the  problem  is  through  an  educative 
campaign  among  parents.  "Mothers'  clubs"  are  now  very 
frequently  found  as  auxiliary  organizations  in  connection 
with  public  schools,  and  these  constitute  an  avenue  through 
which  sex  knowledge  can  be  passed  on  to  the  children  hi  a 
most  effective  and  natural  way. 

Where  sexual  vice  of  one  sort  or  another  has  fastened 
itself  upon  a  school  community,  however,  a  disciplinary 
problem  of  serious  gravity  arises;  but  the  problem,  let  us 
insist,  is  primarily  one  of  discipline,  rather  than  of  instruction. 
The  corrupting  influences  must  be  sought  out  and  eradicated 
at  any  cost.  The  first  step  in  remedying  these  unfortunate 


236  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

conditions  must  be  vigorously  and  thoroughly  "antiseptic," 
and  this  must  be  followed  at  once  by  treatment  that  is 
"aseptic."  In  other  words,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  locate 
and  root  out  the  vice;  and  the  next  thing  to  do  is  to  see  to 
it  that  the  chances  of  its  recurrence  are  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. Conditions  must  be  created  which  will  absorb  the 
mind  with  wholesome  activities.  A  well-ordered  regimen  of 
work  and  play  is  the  surest  safeguard.  Supervised  plays 
and  games  come  to  mind  here  first  of  all.  The  well-organized 
playground  with  a  responsible  supervisor  in  continual  charge 
will  minimize  these  and  other  evils  very  effectively ;  but  it 
should  be  emphasized  that  the  unsupervised  playground  is 
likely  to  accentuate  the  unfortunate  conditions.  Anything 
that  tempts  boys  and  girls  to  congregate  promiscuously  with- 
out adequate  adult  control  is  to  be  condemned  in  the  strong- 
est terms.1 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Arrange  the  "troublesome  types"   discussed  in  the 
chapter  in  the  order  of  their  frequency  as  found  in  the 
schools  that  you  have  known. 

2.  What  type  of  treatment  would  you  particularly  avoid 
in  dealing  with  the  haughty  pupil  ?  the  hypersensitive  pupil  ? 
the  morose  pupil  ?  the  deceitful  pupil  ?  the  vicious  pupil  ? 

3.  To  what  extent  would  you  acquaint  a  seventh-grade 
pupil  who  belonged  to  one  or  another  of  these  types  with 
the  character  of  his  weakness? 

4.  In  a  certain  school,  pupils  are  not  only  marked  on 
the  basis  of  their  standing  in  school  subjects,  but  they  are 
also  given  marks  on  then-  report  cards  to  indicate  their 
"standing"   in  respect  of   certain  moral   and  intellectual 
qualities,  such  as  persistence,  cooperation,  attention,  polite- 

1  See  J.  Bancroft,  Games  for  the  Playgrounds;  H.   S.  Curtis,  Play 
and  Recreation.     (Especially  valuable  for  rural-school  teachers.) 


THE   TROUBLESOME   TYPES  237 

ness,  initiative,  courtesy,  aggressiveness,  loyalty,  kindness, 
and  the  like.  How  would  a  plan  of  this  sort  operate  in  deal- 
ing with  troublesome  types? 

5.  What  are  the  advantages  of  the  Boy  Scouts  movement 
in  relation  to  school  discipline?    Are  there  any  dangers  in 
organizations  of  this  type? 

6.  How  would  you  encourage  a  weak  pupil  to  stand  up  for 
his  rights  among  other  pupils? 

7.  What  are  some  of  the  dangers  of  weak  sentimentalism 
in  a  doctrine  of  discipline?    What  steps  would  you  take  to 
prevent  sympathy  from  doing  more  harm  than  good  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 
DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  INTEREST 

IN  the  preceding  chapters,  the  word  "interest "  has  been 
used  only  infrequently.  The  avoidance  of  this  term  has 
been  intentional.  The  "  doctrine  of  interest  "  has  been 
a  very  important  factor  in  the  improvements  in  class- 
room teaching  and  management  that  have  marked  recent 
educational  development,  but  it  is  subject  to  misinter- 
pretations and  misapplications  that  are  likely  to  issue 
disastrously,  and  this  is  particularly  true  when  the  doc- 
trine of  interest  is  made  the  central  feature  of  one's 
disciplinary  theory. 

Interest  and  Efficiency.  —  It  should  be  distinctly 
recognized,  however,  that  the  interest  that  one  has  in 
one's  work,  —  the  measure  in  which  the  work  fascinates 
one,  —  is  a  most  important  factor  in  efficiency.1  En- 
thusiasm releases  energy  that  is  otherwise  unavailable. 
Indeed,  there  are  good  reasons  for  believing  that  what  is 
called  "  mental  fatigue  "  is  due  very  largely  to  continu- 
ance in  work  when  one  is  feeling  a  constant  impulse  to 
do  "  something  else."  When  one  is  engaged  in  fascinat- 
ing work,  on  the  other  hand,  effort  may  be  put  forth 

1  Cf .  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Educational  Psychology,  vol.  iii,  New  York, 
1914,  chs.  v  and  vi. 

238 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST  239 

practically  to  the  point  of  physical  exhaustion  without 
bringing  with  it  the  symptoms  of  mental  weariness. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  economy,  the  importance  of 
insuring  the  conditions  of  interest  in  one's  work  is  clearly 
apparent.  But  it  is  very  important  to  understand  what 
is  meant  by  interest,  and  it  is  absolutely  essential  to 
recognize  that  disagreeable  and  unpleasant  tasks  are 
not  to  be  shirked  or  scamped  simply  because  they  do  not 
appeal  from  the  point  of  view  of  immediate  interest. 

Limits  in  the  Application  of  the  Doctrine  of  Interest.  — 
The  naive  interpretation  of  the  doctrine  of  interest  has 
been  unfortunate  in  that  it  encourages  mental  laziness, 
and  lends  a  specious  sanction  to  neglecting  tasks  that 
lack  an  intrinsic  appeal.  It  encourages  the  attitude 
which  waits  for  work  that  attracts,  and  discourages  the 
appropriate  and  only  rational  attitude  toward  work,  — 
namely,  putting  forth  the  effort  to  make  the  work  at- 
tractive. It  makes  one  the  slave  of  one's  desires  and  en- 
thusiasms rather  than  their  master.1 

Further  than  this,  an  uncritical  acceptance  of  the 
doctrine  neglects  completely  the  social  demands.  The 
evils  of  this  tendency  may  be  clearly  seen  in  contemporary 
criticisms  of  the  program  of  studies  in  the  elementary 

1  The  development  of  self-mastery  in  this  sense  is  a  basic  principle 
in  the  theory  of  discipline  advanced  by  F.  W.  Foerster,  whose  writings 
have  had  a  profound  influence  in  Switzerland  and  Germany.  In  his 
Schule  und  Charakter  (Zurich,  1910),  he  criticizes  the  dominant  ideals  of 
American  school  discipline  because  they  encourage,  in  the  guise  of 
interest,  the  following  of  the  lines  of  least  resistance.  A  brief  account 
of  Foerster's  doctrine  may  be  found  in  the  Journal  of  Education  (Lon- 
don), March,  1910. 


240  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

and  secondary  schools.  The  reformers  who  would  make 
for  each  pupil  a  separate  curriculum  comprising  only  the 
materials  which  appeal  to  him  forget  (or  never  grasped) 
the  fundamental  significance  of  having  among  all  of  the 
citizens  of  a  democracy  a  common  basis  of  habits,  ideas, 
and  ideals.  Leaving  out  of  account  the  handicap  under 
which  the  individual  must  inevitably  suffer  if  he  escapes 
the  training  which  others  have  had,  the  effect  of  deliber- 
ately encouraging  conditions  which  would  imperil  social 
solidarity  must  be  seriously  considered. 

The  danger  here  is  much  more  serious  than  is  generally 
recognized.  The  present  tendency  in  education  is  toward 
earlier  and  earlier  differentiation  of  curriculums,  and  the 
basis  upon  which  this  differentiation  is  commonly  justified 
is  the  doctrine  of  interest.  The  argument  carries  with  it  a 
certain  measure  of  plausibility.  Why  should  children  be 
required  to  study  subjects  in  which  they  have  no  interest 
when  there  are  so  many  things  that  appeal  to  them?  Why 
should  the  "motor-minded"  child  be  compelled  to  occupy 
his  time  with  books  when  his  whole  being  calls  out  for  a 
different  type  of  activity?  An  appeal  of  this  sort  carries 
certain  conviction  unless  one  apprehends  clearly  the  function 
of  public  education  (and  especially  the  function  of  elementary 
education)  in  laying  this  common  basis  among  all  of  the  future 
citizens  of  the  land.  It  is  a  price  that  must  be  paid  for 
social  solidarity,  —  and  not  a  heavy  price  compared  with 
what  a  lack  of  mutual  understanding  among  the  people 
would  inevitably  involve. 

The  Conditions  under  which  Interest  is  Engendered. 
—  A  common  fallacy  in  the  current  discussions  of  in- 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST  241 

terest  is  to  neglect  the  important  fact  that  activities 
which  do  not  appeal  at  the  outset  often  come  to 
be  fascinating  as  one  becomes  habituated  to  them. 
This  hopeful  tendency  may  be  illustrated  in  several 
ways. 

(a)  The  phenomena  of  the  "  warming-up  "  period  are 
especially  interesting  in  this  connection.  One  fre- 
quently notes  in  beginning  one's  daily  work  a  feeling 
of  ennui  or  distaste  for  the  activity.  For  some  time, 
perhaps,  the  work  progresses  very  slowly  and  quite 
without  interest  or  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  worker. 
Its  efficiency  is  also  likely  to  be  at  a  low  ebb,  although 
this  is  not  always  true.  As  one  proceeds,  however,  one 
gradually  "  gets  into  the  swing  "  of  the  work,  the  initial 
distaste  vanishes,  and  enthusiasm  and  interest  take  the 
place  of  repugnance. 

Students  of  the  psychology  of  work  recognize  two 
different  types  of  "  swing  "  —  a  "  general  swing  "  for 
the  day's  work,  and  "  special  swings  "  for  different  types 
of  work  undertaken  during  the  daily  unit.  Acquiring 
general  swing  is  accomplished  by  some  people  through 
a  brisk  morning  walk,  or  a  cold  bath,  or  gymnastic 
exercises.  The  universality  of  coffee  as  morning  stimu- 
lant is  doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  it  shortens  the  period 
during  which  one  must  "  warm  up  "  to  the  day's  work. 
For  each  separate  type  of  work,  many  people  find  it 
necessary  to  acquire  a  "  special  swing."  The  teacher 
will  recognize  the  significance  of  this  "  swing  "  in  passing 
from  the  teaching  of  one  subject  to  the  teaching  of  an- 


242  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

other.    It  commonly  takes  a  short  time  to  get  "  into  the 
spirit  "  of  the  new  work.1 

(6)  Another  illustration  of  the  growth  of  interest  and 
fascination  with  habituation  is  to  be  found  hi  the  prac- 
tice curve.  Whenever  one  masters  a  relatively  compli- 
cated type  of  skill  (such  as  telegraphy,  stenography,  the 
technique  of  instrumental  music,  speaking  a  foreign 
language,  and  the  like),  the  progress  is  usually  quite 
rapid  at  the  outset  and  then  becomes  slower  and  slower 
as  one  approaches  the  limits  of  one's  ability.  The 
general  form  of  this  progress  when  plotted  is  that  of  a 
convex  curve  rising  sharply  and  then  gradually  flatten- 
ing out.  The  most  significant  fact  regarding  this  prac- 
tice curve,  however,  is  that  it  is  never  regular,  —  unless, 
of  course,  the  record  shows  only  the  gains  made  during 
long  periods  of  tune.  When  the  progress  is  plotted 

1  The  phenomena  of  general  and  special  swing  have  important  rela- 
tions to  the  construction  of  the  school  time-table.  Opening  exercises, 
for  example,  should  be  planned  to  get  the  pupils  into  a  general  swing 
for  the  day's  work,  but  they  should  not  establish  a  special  swing  of  their 
own,  for  this  will  have  to  be  broken  up  when  the  special  classwork  begins. 
General  exercises,  then,  should  consist  largely  of  familiar  materials,  — 
songs,  favorite  readings,  and  the  like.  Dr.  F.  H.  Hayward  has  proposed 
a  "school  ritual"  for  such  exercises,  embodying  responsive  readings 
and  chants  which  will  embody  in  a  beautiful  and  attractive  form  the 
great  moral  truths,  and  with  which  through  repetition  the  pupils  will 
become  familiar.  The  need  of  acquiring  a  special  swing  for  each  exer- 
cise suggests  the  importance  of  having  recitation  periods  long  enough  to 
prevent  undue  loss  of  swing  in  changing  from  one  study  to  another. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  "content"  subjects ;  in  the  drill  work  of 
the  "formal"  subjects,  however,  the  periods  may  well  be  shorter,  for 
here  familiarity  with  the  material  will  not  necessitate  so  long  a  "  warm- 
ing-up" period. 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST  243 

from  day  to  day,  or  from  hour  to  hour,  the  curve  exhibits 
a  zigzag  form.  In  a  typical  curve,  indeed,  each  marked 
rise  in  efficiency  is  almost  invariably  followed  by  a  fatt- 
ing off,  and  this  depression  may  last  over  several  prac- 
tice periods,  constituting  what  is  known  as  a  "  plateau  " 
of  growth.  So  constant  is  this  phenomenon  that  the 
existence  of  plateaus  in  learning  may  be  considered 
inevitable. 

From  our  present  point  of  view,  the  universality  of  the 
plateaus  in  learning  suggests  at  once  the  impossibility 
of  carrying  to  the  extreme  the  implications  of  the  doc- 
trine of  interest.  The  plateaus  represent  periods  during 
which  growth  is  either  very  slow  or  absolutely  non- 
existent. They  are  consequently  very  often  periods  of 
mental  depression.  The  lack  of  progress  is  likely  to 
engender  discouragement  and  to  tempt  one  to  surrender. 
The  vital  policy  here,  of  course,  is  not  one  of  surrender, 
but  one  of  persistence.  It  is  true  that  sometimes  the 
best  thing  to  do  is  to  stop  work  for  a  while  and  let  the 
elements  of  skill  already  mastered  coalesce,  but  in 
general  a  policy  of  "  giving  up  "  is  fatal.  No  small  pro- 
portion of  the  "  failures  "  in  life  is  undoubtedly  due  to 
the  fact  that  many  men  and  women  have  never  been 
able  to  get  beyond  the  first  plateaus  in  the  mastery  of 
the  arts  or  skills  that  they  have  essayed.  They  have 
lacked  the  virtue  of  persistence,  —  or  the  courage  to  do 
the  disagreeable  task.  They  have  given  up  the  work 
and  looked  about  for  something  else,  —  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  every  art  that  is  worth  mastering  claims  its 


244  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

toll  of  effort  and  sacrifice  from  the  learner.  A  doctrine 
of  interest  which  insists  that  work  must  always  be 
made  fascinating  encourages  just  this  fatal  attitude. 
The  interest  that  should  be  sanctioned  is  the  interest 
that  comes  with  mastery,  —  not  the  temporary  and 
evanescent  interest  that  attaches  to  the  new,  the  bizarre, 
and  the  unfamiliar. 

(c)  This  suggests  a  third  illustration  of  the  funda- 
mental principle  that  effective  interests  are  products  of 
growth.  Not  only  do  we  have  to  "  warm  up  "  to  our 
tasks  and  generate  enthusiasm  for  them ;  and  not  only 
are  there  essential  stages  in  the  mastery  of  any  art 
which  are  uninteresting  and  even  disagreeable;  but  a 
most  important  factor  in  making  anything  pleasant 
and  agreeable  is  the  factor  of  repetition.  All  of  the 
fine  arts  —  music,  painting,  poetry,  and  architecture  — 
recognize  this  principle.  Not  only  does  the  artist  pro- 
vide for  the  repetition  of  a  phrase,  a  theme,  or  a  design, 
and  so  induce  in  those  who  look  or  listen  that  feeling  of 
familiarity  which  is  a  prime  source  of  aesthetic  delight ; 
but  those  who  have  learned  to  appreciate  know  well 
that  the  initial  presentation  may  be  in  no  sense  an  index 
of  the  pleasure  that  repetition  will  bring.  The  keenest 
enjoyments  of  appreciation  come  only  when  one  has 
worked  up  through  effort  and  struggle  to  a  point  where 
appreciation  is  possible. 

But  the  principle  of  repetition  has  a  wider  application 
than  is  suggested  by  its  employment  in  the  realm  of 
art.  It  operates  through  all  of  the  affairs  of  life.  Cus- 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST  245 

torn  and  habituation  transform  indifference  Into  liking, 
change  initial  distaste  into  fascination,  and  endow  the 
familiar  and  the  commonplace  with  a  subtle  charm.  It 
is  the  work  that  one  has  learned  to  do  well  through 
abundant  practice  that  holds  one  with  an  iron  grip.  It 
is  the  skill  that  has  cost  the  most  that  fills  one  with  the 
keenest  delight. 

This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  one  can  learn  to 
do  anything  provided  only  that  one  persists  in  efforts 
at  mastery.  Native  "  gifts  "  must  be  accorded  an  im- 
portant place  in  determining  efficiency;  and  if  one 
suffers  under  an  irremediable  native  handicap,  no  amount 
of  repetition  and  practice  will  bring  him  to  the  point  of 
efficiency  or  serve  to  arouse  in  him  that  delight  in 
mastery  which  is  the  richest  reward  that  life  can  bring. 
But  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  most  men  and  women 
who  fail  owe  their  disaster,  not  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  chosen  an  occupation  for  which  they  are  inherently 
unfitted,  but  rather  that  they  have  been  unable  to  work 
steadfastly  and  persistently  until  the  discouraging 
"  plateaus  "  have  been  conquered.  This  weakness  of 
"  will,"  it  is  true,  may  be  an  inherited  defect,  but  if  so, 
it  is  not  specific  in  its  operation  but  rather  general ;  it 
would  doubtless  operate  in  the  direction  of  failure  what- 
ever type  of  work  one  attempted. 

The  advice  commonly  given  to  boys  and  girls  to  let 
their  interests  determine  their  vocational  choices  is  likely 
to  be  misleading  in  this  connection.  The  vocational 
ambitions  and  interests  of  young  people  are  commonly 


246  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

determined  by  very  superficial  factors.  There  are  cer- 
tain kinds  of  work  that  are  attractive  to  almost  all  boys 
at  certain  ages,  —  engineering,  farming,  forestry,  sea- 
manship, and  the  like.  Imitation  and  the  sanctions  of 
the  immediate  social  group  also  play  an  important  part 
in  determining  such  interests.  Occasionally,  a  deep 
and  permanent  liking  for  a  certain  type  of  work  is  fore- 
shadowed by  these  early  appeals,  but  we  are  skeptical 
as  to  the  general  trustworthiness  of  interest  as  a  symp- 
tom of  ability.  Far  better  it  would  be  to  encourage  the 
boy  or  girl  to  find  out  what  work  needs  to  be  done  and 
then  to  determine  whether  he  or  she  has  native  defi- 
ciencies which  would  permanently  preclude  his  or  her 
success.  The  movement  known  as  "  vocational  guid- 
ance "  promises  to  be  of  large  service  in  promo  ting  right 
choices  of  occupations,  first,  by  acquainting  young  people 
with  the  various  types  of  occupational  life,  —  their 
advantages  and  disadvantages,  their  rewards,  and  the 
measure  of  discipline  and  training  that  they  demand  of 
their  recruits ;  and,  secondly,  by  identifying  individual 
traits  of  an  unmodifiable  kind  that  may  either  promote 
or  interfere  with  the  acquisition  of  efficiency  in  the  occu- 
pation selected.  But  the  movement  is  likely  to  mis- 
carry if  it  falls  beneath  the  spell  of  the  doctrine  of 
interest  in  its  current  naive  form. 

Mental  Growth  comes  through  overcoming  Obstacles. 

-  The   fact   that   interest   and   fascination   attach   to 

activities  that  have  become  fairly  well  mastered  should 

not  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  this  is  the  only  type  of 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST  247 

interest  that  should  be  recognized,  or  that  it  does  not 
have  serious  limitations  as  an  educational  principle. 
Routine  is  likely  to  be  pleasant  and  attractive  if  it  is 
not  absolutely  monotonous;  that  is,  if  it  offers  some 
new  problems  or  involves  a  variety  of  sensory  stimulation. 
The  so-called  "  blind-alley  "  occupations  —  the  messen- 
ger service,  running  elevators,  paging  in  hotels,  and  the 
like  —  are  only  too  attractive  to  certain  types  of  mind. 
The  routine  is  easy  to  master,  little  "  thought "  is 
demanded,  and  enough  variety  is  provided  to  gratify 
the  senses.  As  a  general  rule,  the  occupations  that  are 
routine  in  their  character  are  dangerous  because  they 
are  too  pleasant ;  they  make  too  slight  a  demand  upon 
initiative  and  constructive  effort ;  they  present  too  few 
thought-compelling  problems. 

Mental  growth,  it  is  safe  to  affirm,  comes  only  through 
effort,  —  only  through  the  thoughtful,  serious  over- 
coming of  real  difficulties.  In  its  very  nature,  thinking 
is  unpleasant,  for  it  means  that  one  has  been  balked,  de- 
layed, brought  to  a  halt.  The  peaceful  flow  of  the  con- 
scious processes  has  been  interrupted  by  a  "  crisis." 
The  pleasure  that  comes  with  real  thinking  comes  when 
the  terminus  is  in  sight,  —  when  one  can  foresee  how  the 
means  will  reach  the  end,  —  and  this  anticipation  of  the 
successful  issue  may  throw  back  its  coloring  over 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  struggle.  Thus  in  retrospect 
the  entire  experience  may  seem  to  have  been  pleasurable, 
although  the  likelihood  is  that  many  of  the  stages  were 
extremely  distasteful.  This  suggestion  gains  additional 


248  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

strength  from  a  recognized  principle  in  the  psychology 
of  memory,  —  the  principle,  namely,  that  the  unpleasant 
elements  of  past  experience  tend  to  fade  much  more 
rapidly  than  the  pleasant  elements,1  —  although  the 
objects  that  have  been  associated  with  unpleasant  ex- 
periences are  commonly  better  remembered  than  the 
objects  associated  with  pleasant  experience.2 

The  Travail  of  Mental  Growth.  —  Progress  in  the 
objective  sense  of  the  term  (that  is,  progress  in  one's 
work)  is  commonly  most  rapid  when  the  work  is  pleasant 
and  agreeable,  —  when  one  is  solving  a  problem  with 
the  end  in  sight  and  with  abounding  hope  and  enthu- 
siasm. Here  the  perplexities  have  been  resolved,  the 
troubles  are  practically  over.  It  has  not  been  demon- 
strated, however,  that  the  periods  of  effort  and  struggle, 
when  one  is  groping  for  the  light,  are  without  their 
educative  influence.  True  it  is  that  unless  the  light 
ultimately  comes,  growth  will  be  negligible ;  but  if  per- 
sistence and  steady  effort  in  the  face  of  odds  gradually 
lead  to  a  solution,  it  means  that  one  has  climbed  to 
a  higher  plane,  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  what  we 
term  in  popular  speech  "  mental  strength  "  has  been 
augmented  thereby.  The  metaphorical  comparison  of 
mental  and  moral  refinement  to  the  refinement  of  gold 
through  fire  must  be  accorded  a  certain  measure  of  jus- 
tification. It  takes  a  certain  amount  of  suffering  and 

»Cf.  H.  L.  Hollingworth :  "The  Oblivescence  of  the  Disagreeable," 
Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  Scientific  Methods,  vol.  vii,  pp. 
709  ff.  2E.  Meumann,  Vorlesungen,  1907.  vol.  i,  p.  151. 


DISCIPLINE    AND   INTEREST  249 

perhaps  even  of  agony  to  lift  one  to  the  higher  planes. 
The  "  travail  "  of  mental  growth  is  too  thoroughly  sub- 
stantiated by  human  experience  to  be  dismissed  as  a  myth. 

It  is  both  possible  and  probable  that  there  are  indi- 
vidual exceptions  to  this  general  rule.  Some  men  appear 
to  drift  into  power  and  ability  as  readily  as  a  boat  might 
drift  before  a  favorable  wind  into  a  safe  harbor ;  but,  in 
general,  the  chances  of  one's  making  progress  in  this 
way  are  very  slight,  and  the  theories  that  sanction  such 
alluring  hopes  are  consequently  fraught  with  danger. 
This  is  the  most  serious  difficulty  with  the  doctrine  of 
interest.  As  its .  expositors  understand  it,  there  would 
be  little  in  it  to  criticize,  for  they  provide  very  carefully 
for  all  exigencies.  But  the  element  of  danger  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  will  be  misinterpreted  as  sanctioning  the 
lines  of  least  resistance,  and  anything  that  does  this  is 
educationally  questionable  if  not,  indeed,  thoroughly 
vicious. 

The  theory  that  mental  growth  is  not  only  possible, 
but  most  certain  and  most  wholesome  under  conditions 
that  encourage  the  shunning  of  disagreeable  tasks,  has 
the  support  of  influential  authority.  Madame  Mon- 
tessori,  for  example,  decries  duty  and  sacrifice  as  second- 
rate  ideals,  holding  that  only  weak  nations  have  glorified 
restraint,  and  that  only  inferior  individuals  need  to  be 
subjected  to  this  type  of  discipline.1  This  is  an  extreme 
view  which  few  of  the  advocates  of  the  doctrine  of 

1  Cf.  M.  Montessori,  Pedagogical  Anthropology  (trans,  by  F.  T.  Cooper), 
New  York,  1913,  pp.  92-93. 


250  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

interest  would  indorse,  and  yet  it  is  the  logical  terminus 
of  the  kind  of  reasoning  which  the  doctrine  involves.1 

The  Relation  of  Discipline  to  Mental  Growth.  — 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  second  problem  of  dis- 
cipline, —  the  problem  of  "  saving  the  individual  from 
himself,"  —  the  paramount  duty  of  the  school  is  to 
teach  the  pupil  to  do  vigorously  and  relentlessly  the 
tasks  that  his  hand  finds  to  do ;  to  acquaint  him  with 
the  necessity  of  working  courageously  when  the  task 
does  not  attract,  and  when  each  forward  step  involves 
supreme  effort;  to  encourage  him  to  hold  momentary 
desire  and  fancy  in  leash  while  he  is  pursuing  the  goal ; 
to  train  him  to  bear  the  agony  and  the  travail  that 
are  essential  to  the  overcoming  of  difficulties;  and, 
finally,  to  aid  him  in  generalizing  these  lessons  gained 
through  many  experiences  into  effective  ideals  of  effort, 
persistence,  and  rigorously  thoughtful  procedure. 

1  Some  light  could  be  thrown  upon  this  problem  by  a  careful  question- 
ing of  men  of  marked  achievement.  So  far  as  the  writer  has  been  able 
to  interview  such  men,  the  opinion  is  general  that  significant  advance 
comes  only  through  a  process  which  the  word  "travail"  best  expresses. 
Professor  A.  L.  Hall-Quest,  in  an  unpublished  study  based  on  a  ques- 
tionnaire investigation  of  methods  of  mental  work,  has  reached  similar 
conclusions.  About  one  in  five  of  those  replying  to  his  questionnaire 
asserted  that  the  solutions  of  the  problems  that  they  were  facing  came 
to  them  suddenly  and  without  apparent  effort,  —  often  during  a  day- 
dream or  "revery,"  when  —  to  use  an  expression  of  Beaunis  —  they 
were  "thinking  of  nothing."  But  the  remaining  eighty  per  cent  stated 
that  they  had  to  struggle  long  and  hard  with  their  work,  and  implied  that 
many  phases  of  it  were  distinctly  distasteful.  One  man  of  rare  attain- 
ments whom  the  writer  questioned  said  that  the  word  "interest"  would 
be  the  very  last  term  that  he  would  use  in  describing  the  experiences 
from  which  he  had  derived  the  largest  increments  of  mental  growth. 


DISCIPLINE   AND   INTEREST 

This  task  is  not  to  be  accomplished  by  continually 
appealing  to  evanescent  interests  or  to  problems  that 
attract  because  of  their  novelty  or  their  relative  sim- 
plicity. But  neither  can  it  be  accomplished  by  invent- 
ing difficulties  and  arbitrarily  compelling  the  pupil  to 
overcome  them.  The  old-tune  school  sought  to  accom- 
plish the  desired  end  (which  the  old-time  schoolmaster 
saw  very  clearly)  by  a  process  akin  to  this.  The  pur- 
pose was  commendable,  but  it  was  almost  inevitably 
defeated  by  the  means  which  the  old-time  school  em- 
ployed ;  at  any  rate,  while  a  few  doubtless  profited  by 
the  severity  of  the  treatment,  and  really  gained  in 
power  and  strength  by  the  experience,  the  great  ma- 
jority were  permanently  disheartened  and,  consequently, 
weakened.  Strength  comes  from  overcoming  difficul- 
ties, but  difficulties  that  are  not  overcome  are  not 
sources  of  strength.  Climbing  will  bring  one  to  a 
higher  plane,  but  if  the  climber  continually  tumbles 
back  and  never  reaches  the  summit,  his  experience  is 
the  worst  imaginable  type  of  preparation  for  later 
struggles.  So  long  as  strained  relations  exist  between 
pupil  and  teacher,  the  kind  of  effort  that  makes  for 
mental  growth  is  likely  to  be  absent.  It  is  only  when 
something  akin  to  rapport  exists,  —  it  is  only  when  the 
work  rather  than  the  teacher  becomes  the  master,  and 
when  the  relationship  of  counselor  and  guide  rather  than 
that  of  taskmaster  has  been  established,  —  that  this  end 
can  be  effectively  gained. 

Given  these  favorable  conditions,  however,  the  oppor- 


252  SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 

tunities  for  stimulating  the  pupil  to  climb  to  higher 
planes  are  numerous.  The  teacher  can  then  lead  the 
pupil  to  induce  from  his  own  struggles  and  triumphs  the 
essential  lessons  of  persistence,  patience,  and  resolute 
thinking.  It  is  here,  we  take  it,  that  the  art  of  teach- 
ing culminates;  certainly  it  is  at  this  point  that  dis- 
cipline hi  the  broadest  sense  of  the  term  becomes  an 
effective  agency  for  growth  in  mental  power  and  ability. 

QUESTIONS  AND  EXERCISES 

1.  Note  in  your  own  work  the  effect  of  interest,  enthu- 
siasm, and  fascination  upon  efficiency.    Note  under  what 
conditions  you  do  (a)  the  best  work,  (6)  the  most  work. 

2.  Note  the  influence  of  pleasant  and  unpleasant  work 
with  reference  to  the  feeling  of  weariness  or  exhilaration  that 
each  may  give  rise  to. 

3.  Do  you  find  that  it  is  necessary  to  go  through  a  period 
of  "warming-up"  to  get  into  a  "general  swing"  for  the 
day's  work?    Watch  your  daily  "work  curve"  for  variations 
in  this  connection. 

4.  At  what  points  in  the  mastery  of  a  new  art  or  skill 
have  you  found  the  work  most  laborious  and  least  interesting  ? 

5.  Can  you  find  in  your  own  experience  illustrations  of 
the  statement  that  "  fascination  comes  with  habituation "  ? 

6.  State  the  doctrine  of  interest  in  a  form  that  will  not 
encourage  the  following  of  the  lines  of  least  resistance. 


INDEX 


Accuracy,  67. 

Achievement,  in  pupil  group,  223. 

Address,  and  teaching  personality,  31, 
32. 

Administration  of  school,  and  dis- 
cipline, 17,  19,  48,  59  f.,  115,  124  f., 
128  fi.,  147,  156  f.,  209  ff. 

Adolescence,  corporal  punishment  in, 
184. 

Esthetic  appreciation,  factor  of  effort 
in,  245. 

Anecdotes,  as  means  of  moral  training, 
227. 

Anger,  and  punishment,  195 ;  and  the 
objective  attitude,  52. 

Animal  psychology,  reward  and  pun- 
ishment in,  1 66. 

Antagonism,  attitude  of,  63,  251. 

Apology,  collective,  101. 

Appearance,  personal,  31  ff. 

Arithmetic,  standard  tests  in,  68  f.; 
individual  assignments  hi,  76,  80. 

ARNOLD,  F.,  134  «. 

ARNOLD,  THOMAS,  in. 

ASCHAM,  R.,  176. 

Assembly  room  supervision,  160  f. 

Assignments,  individual,  75  ff. 

Association  of  reward  or  penalty  with 
conduct,  164  f. 

Attitude,  objective,  25,  51  ff. ;  of 
public  toward  discipline,  54,  172  f. ; 
of  pupils,  2,  20,  62  ff .,  98,  200. 

Authority,  respect  for,  51. 

AYRES,  L.  P.,  68. 

BANCROFT,  J.  B.,  236. 

BECCARIA,  C.,  182. 

BENTHAM,  J.,  182. 

Biblical  injunctions  regarding  corporal 

punishment,  179  f. 
"  Bluffing,"  149. 
BOOK,  \V.  F.,  35. 


BOYCE,  A.  C.,  26. 

Boy  Scouts,  organization  of,  hi  schools, 

227  f. 

"Boys  will  be  boys,"  213. 
BRASELMAN,  F.  M.,  203. 
"Breaking  the  will,"  221. 

BUELLESFIELD,  H.,  26,  27. 

Buildings,  mutilation  of,  153  f. 
BURRISS,  W.  P.,  129. 

Cajolery,  94,  192. 
"Calling  names,"  14,  156  f. 
Certainty  of  consequences  as  factor  in 

discipline,  133  ff. 
Cheating,  95  ff.,  217. 
Children,  rights  of ,  21,  154. 
Citizenship,  training  for,  106,  239  f. 
Civil  government,  analogies  to  school 

government,  132,  218. 
Civil  law,  flogging  as  penalty  in,  174. 
CLAPP,  F.  L.,  30,  32,  33,  42. 
Clubs,  in  school  life,  114. 
Coercion,  by  social  group,  113  f.;    in 

discipline,    131   ff. ;    scope  of,    132; 

why     disappearing     from     schools, 

171  ff. 

COFFMAN,  L.  D.,  24,  142. 

COLET,  DEAN,  177  n. 
Collective  competition,  71  f . 
Collective  offenses,  100. 
Collective  reparation,  99,  159. 
Collectivism,  and  theory  of  discipline, 

22. 
COLWELL,  W.  A.,  96. 

COMENIUS,  176. 

Common  elements  in  education,  64  f., 
240. 

Community,  support  of  teacher  by,  36. 

Competition,  between  individuals,  70; 
among  groups,  71  f.;  with  best  pre- 
vious record,  70. 

Conduct,  modification  of,  164  ff. 


253 


254 


INDEX 


Confinement,  solitary,  as  school  pen- 
alty, 199. 
Consequences,  association  of,  with  acts, 

165. 
Constitution,   provision  against  cruel 

punishments,  175. 
COOPER,  W.  M.,  173, 174, 175  ».,  177  n., 

178. 

Cooperation,  2,  5,  go  3. 
Corporal  punishment,  143,  149,  170  ff., 

221;    decline  of,  in  school,   175  ff. ; 

infliction  of,  194  f. ;    legal  decisions 

concerning,  175,  195;   place  of,  192; 

reaction  against,  173  ff. 
Coup,    importance    of    the    decisive, 

136  ff. 

COURTIS,  S.  A.,  68,  69. 
Cowardice,  230. 

Crime,  in  youth,  22  f. ;  increase  in,  187. 
Crimes,  distinguished  from  vices,  2i7f. 
Criticism  of  pupils  by  one  another, 

103  f. 

Criticisms  of  educaiton,  64  f.,  125. 
CURTIS,  H.  S.,  236. 

"Dark  room,"  as  punishment,  200. 

DAVIS,  J.  B.,  115,  116. 

DAVIS,  J.  N.,  158,  159. 

Decadent  schools,  17  f. 

Deceit,  as  instinct,  231. 

Deceitful  pupil,  as  a  troublesome  type, 
231  f. 

Delay  hi  administering  punishment, 
206. 

Delinquency,  juvenile,  187. 

Demerit  marks,  as  punishments,  204  ff. 

Democracy,  ideals  of,  7 ;  educational 
basis  of,  239  f . ;  retrograde  move- 
ments in,  193;  theory  of,  93. 

Democratic  ideals,  and  discipline,  223. 

Departmental  schools,  pupil  organiza- 
tions in,  1 1 6. 

Departmental  teaching,  129. 

Dignity,  as  factor  in  teaching  personal- 
ity, 31,  32. 

Diplomacy,  and  tact,  42  f.,  222. 

Dirigibility  of  enthusiasm,  122  f. 

Disagreeable,  discipline  of  the,  165  ff., 
247  f. 

Discipline,  and  experience  in  teaching, 
33 ;  and  procrastination,  38  ff. ;  and 


supervision,  19;  and  tactlessness, 
42  ff. ;  and  training  for  teaching,  33 ; 
functions  of,  10,  216  f. ;  and  dis- 
respect for  law,  1 88  ff . ;  and  interest, 
238  ff. ;  meaning  of,  6  ff. ;  military, 
6;  new  ideals  of,  i  f.,  179  ff. ;  phi- 
losophy of,  20  ff.,  238  ff. 

Disobedience,  willful,  148  ff. 

Docility,  16,  oo. 

"Dunce-caps,"  as  penalties,  198. 

Duty,  and  pleasure,  44 ;  and  sacrifice, 
249. 

Education,  ideals  of,  6  f. ;  in  earliest 
years,  231;  vocational,  183;  theory 
of,  and  discipline,  56,  238  ff. ;  com- 
mon elements  in,  64  f.,  240. 

Efficiency,  and  interest,  238  f. 

Effort,  and  achievement,  244;  and 
discipline,  119  f. 

Elementary  school,  causes  of  failure 
among  teachers  of,  26  f . 

Emulation,  225. 

Encouragement,  230. 

England,  crime  in,  133. 

English  schools,  self-government  in, 
in. 

Enthusiasm,  as  factor  in  teaching  per- 
sonality, 31  ff. ;  as  function  of  youth 
and  inexperience,  27 ;  dirigibility 
of,  122  f. ;  enemies  of,  124  ff. ;  of 
the  teacher,  16. 

ERASMUS,  177  n. 

Espionage,  105  ff.,  in. 

Eugenics,  183. 

Evolution  of  idea  of  punishment,  1 79  ff . 

Examinations,  cheating  in,  95  ff. 

Exceptional  case,  fallacy  of,  213. 

Experience,  and  discipline,  25  ff.,  27  f., 
33- 

Fad,  distinguished  from  fashion,  4. 

Failure,  causes  of,  among  teachers,  26  f . 

Fairness,  as  factor  in  teaching  per- 
sonality, 31  f. 

Fallacy  of  exceptional  case,  213. 

Falsifying,  135. 

Fashion,  as  characteristic  of  well-dis- 
ciplined school,  2  ff.,  51,  112  f.,  199; 
meaning  of,  3  f. ;  wrong,  14  f.,  114, 
142  ff. 


INDEX 


255 


Fatigue,  and  interest,  238. 

Favors,  as  rewards  for  good  conduct, 

93- 

Feeling,  expression  of,  50  f . 
Feelings,  hurt,  43,  54,  59,  229  f. 
Feminization,  of  teaching  population, 

172. 
Fighting,  217,  230;    instinct  of,  179, 

180  n. 

FlNDLAY,  J.  J.,  III. 

Fire-drills,  order  imperative  in,  150  f. 
FIRKINS,  O.  W.,  95,  96. 
Flagellants,  sect  of,  173  f. 
Flogging,    as   civil  penalty,    174;     as 

military  penalty,  17 5  n.;   of  women 

prisoners,  174. 

FOERSTER,  F.  W.,  239. 

Freudian   theory  of  mental   derange- 
ments, 55. 

Gambling,  134  f. 
Gary  (Ind.)  schools,  129. 
Generalization  of  virtues,  227. 
General  merit  in  teaching,  25  f. 
Geography,  individual  assignments  in, 

72. 

Girls,  corporal  punishment  of,  184. 
Good   name  of   school,   as  source  of 

pride,  102. 
GOULD,  F.  J.,  227. 
Government,  by  pupils,  8,  105  ff . 
Grievance,  personal,  57  f. 
Group   responsibility,    and   discipline, 

90  ff. 
Group  rivalry,  71  f. 

Habit-formation,  242  ff . 

Habits,  of  work,  119.     i- 

HALL,  G.  S.,  234. 

HALL,  H.  E.,  108. 

HALL-QUEST,  A.  L.,  250  n. 

Handwriting,  scales  for  measuring,  68  f . 

HAKUS,  P.,  190. 

"Hardening"  experiences  in  discipline, 

229. 

HARPER,  W.  R.,  124. 
Harshness,  16  f. 
Harvard-Newton  scale,  68,  69. 
Haughty  pupil,  as  troublesome  type, 

223  f. 
Hazing,  151  f. 


Heredity,   and   personality,   38;    and 

training,  233. 
High  school,  discipline  in,  84  f.,  99  ff., 

140  f.,  1 60  f. ;  failure  among  teachers 

of,  26  f. ;  pupils'  opinions  of  teachers 

in,  35 ;  theft  among  pupils  of,  152  f. 
HILLEGAS,  M.  B.,  68. 
History,  individual  assignments  in,  72. 
HODGES,  G.,  227. 
ROLLING  WORTH,  H.  L.,  248. 
Homicides,  increase  in,  188. 
Honesty,  in  examinations,  95,  97. 
Honor  system,  95  ff . 
HOWARD,  JOHN,  183. 
Humanitarian  ideals,  development  of, 

181  f. 
Humiliation,  growing  prejudice  against, 

184,  198. 

HUXLEY,  T.  H.,  122. 
Hygiene,  sex,  234  f. 
Hypercritical  attitude,  103. 
Hypersensitive  child,  43,  225;  as  type, 

229  ff. 

Ideals,  of  discipline,  6  f. ;  of  punish- 
ment, 179  ff-;  generalization  of,  227. 

Idleness,  217. 

Ill-temper,  and  discipline,  41  f. 

Immunities,  as  rewards,  93. 

Incorrigibles,  segregation  of,  172. 

Indecency,  134. 

Individual  assignment,  225,  228;  as 
means  of  reducing  unruly  spirit,  75  ff . 

Individual  differences,  215,  219  ff. 

Individual,  protection  of,  against  him- 
self, 9,  10,  216. 

Individual  treatment,  principle  of, 
159  f.,  219  ff. 

Individualism,  and  collectivism  in  dis- 
ciplinary theory,  21  f. 

Indulged  school,  142  ff. 

Indulgence,  as  cause  of  unruly  spirit, 
20  ff. 

Inexperience,  and  failure  in  teaching, 
27  f. 

Infant  education,  231. 

Injustice,  collective,  100. 

Insolence,  154  ff. 

Instinct,  and  diplomacy,  42;  com- 
bative, 179,  180  n.;  for  teaching, 
30;  of  subjection,  37. 


256 


INDEX 


Instinctive  basis  of  punishment,  179  f. 

Insult,  154  f. 

Interest,  2,  5, 66,  228  ff. ;  dirigibility  of, 

123. 
Interference  in  matters  of  discipline, 

157  ff.,  224. 

Intimidatory  punishment,  181. 
Irresponsible    pupil,    as    troublesome 

type,  225  ff. 

JAMES,  W.,  130. 

Jealousy,  44. 

Jesuit  schools,  corporal  punishment  in, 

176. 

JOHNSTON,  C.  H.,  115. 
Justice,  157  f. ;  ideal  of,  180  f. 
Juvenile  delinquency,  increase  in,  187. 

Keeping  after  school  as  punishment, 

203  f. 

"Keeping  in"  at  recess,  204. 
KING,  I.,  83,  85. 

Law,  respect  for,  194. 

Legal  decisions  concerning  corporal 
punishment,  175,  195. 

Leniency,  and  disrespect  for  law,  187  f., 
191  n. ;  place  of,  in  school  discipline, 
213  ff. ;  toward  criminals,  186  n. 

LINDSEY,  B.,  22,  23. 

Lines,  mischief  in,  14. 

LITTLER,  S.  H.,  26,  42. 

LOCKE,  JOHN,  176. 

Loyalty,  to  craft  ideals,  19. 

Lying,  135. 

McCoRMACK,  T.  J.,  99,  ico. 

McDouGALL,  W.,  37,  180. 

McMuRRY,  F.  M.,  190. 

Malicious  mischief,  142  ff.,  150  ff . 

Marble-playing,  134  «. 

Marine  Corps,  as  illustrating  discipli- 
nary efficiency,  133. 

Marking  of  walls,  134. 

Marks,  demerit,  204. 

Maturity  of  teachers,  and  discipline,  24. 

Mechanized  routine,  and  discipline, 
46  f. 

Mental  attitude,  toward  discipline,  2, 
20,  54,  62  ff.,  98,  172  f.,  200;  objec- 
tive, 25,  51  ff. 


Mental  growth,  and  discipline,  250  ff . ; 
travail  of,  248  f. 

Mental  strength,  248. 

Merit,  in  teaching,  25  f . 

MEUMANN,  E.,  248. 

Mischief,  161 ;  malicious,  142  ff.,  150  ff. 

Misdemeanors,  school,  218. 

Mode,  as  synonym  of  fashion,  3  f . 

Monitorial  positions,  as  rewards,  204  ff . 

MONTESSOKI,  M.,  249. 

Moral  outcomes  of  discipline,  95  ff. 

Moral  training,  106,  114,  210  f.,  227; 
and  corporal  punishment,  190. 

Morose  pupil,  as  troublesome  type,  228. 

MOSES,  CLEDA,  27. 

Mothers'  dubs,  235. 

Mounted  police  of  Canada,  as  illustrat- 
ing disciplinary  efficiency,  133. 

Mutilation,  of  buildings,  153  f. 

Nagging,  19,  2iof. 

Neatness,  as  qualitative  standard,  67. 

Nervous  tension,  avoidance  of,  121. 

NEUMANN,  H.,  154. 

New  York  City  schools,  204  ff.,  100, 

192. 
Normal    schools,    recommendation   of 

teachers  by,  40. 
Note  passing,  217. 

Obedience,  92, 140  f .,  148  ff. ;  attitude 
of,  151. 

Objective  attitude,  25,  51  ff. 

Offender,  locating  responsibility  in, 
160. 

Ohio  School  Survey,  quoted,  81. 

Optimism,  as  factor  in  teaching  per- 
sonality, 31  f. 

Order,  fashion  of,  51. 

Organizations,  pupil,  114  f. 

O'SHEA,  M.  V.,  27,  162. 

Pain,  as  a  deterrent,  166. 
Parent,  analogies  to  teacher,  92. 
Parents,   conferences  with,    196,    199, 

207  f . ;  tact  in  dealing  with,  45. 
Peevishness,  214. 
Penalties,  contemporary  school,  198  ff. ; 

efficiency  of,    166;    psychology  of, 

164  ff. 
Penmanship,  scales  of,  68  f . 


INDEX 


257 


PERRY,  A.  C.,  Jr.,  93. 

Persistence,    243;    necessity  of,    220; 

principle  of,  in  discipline,  139. 
Personal  appearance,  as  factor  of  teach- 
ing personality,  31  f. 
Personal  grievances,  57  f. 
Personality,    domineering,    37    f.;     in 

teaching,  29  ff. 
Perversions,  induced  by  corporal  pun- 
ishment, 184  f. 
Petty  theft,  152  f. 
PHELPS,  W.  L.,  41,  47,  123,  162. 
Philosophy  of  discipline,  20  f .,  238  ff. 
Plateaus,  in  practice  curve,  186  ».,  243, 

245- 

Play,  regimen  of,  236. 
Playground  movement,  183,  236. 
Playgrounds,  22,  236. 
Pleasant  consequences,  contrasted  with 

unpleasant,  165  f. 
Pleasantness  in  learning,  247. 
PLUTARCH,  176. 
Political  conditions  affecting  education, 

17- 
Practice  curve,  186  n. ;  and  doctrine  of 

interest,  242  ff. 

Preaching,  in  moral  training,  227. 
Prejudice,  social,  168,  183  f.,  194. 
Prevention  vs.  punishment,  183. 
Principal   of    school,    and    discipline, 

124  f. ;  reporting  cases  to,  142,  209  ff. 
Privileges,  as  rewards,  93 ;  and  rights, 

20 ;    withdrawal  of,  as  punishment, 

207. 
Probation  system,  results  of,  in  civil 

government,  186  «. 

Problematic  situation  in  teaching,  75  ff . 
Problems,  objective,  60. 
Procrastination,  in  discipline,  38  ff. 
Profanity,  134. 

Professional  status  of  teacher,  54. 
Program,  daily,  48,  121,  242  n. 
Proportionate  punishment,  ideal  of,  180. 
Protective  punishment,  181. 
Psychology,  animal,  166;    of  rewards 

and  penalties,   164  ff. ;    of  solitary 

treatment,  200. 
Public  attitude  toward  discipline,  21, 

158  f.,  172. 
Punishment,  corporal,  170  ff.,  194  f. ; 

place  of  corporal,  193 ;  evolution  of, 
8 


179;  proportional,  180;  protective, 
181 ;  intimidatory,  181 ;  reforma- 
tory, 182,  198;  vs.  prevention,  183. 

Punishments,  cruel,  175  «.,  192. 

Pupils,   types  of,    216  ff. ;     deceitful, 

231  f. ;   haughty,  223  f. ;   hypersen- 
sitive, 229  f . ;    irresponsible,  225  ff. ; 
morose,     228    f. ;     self-complacent, 
225;     stubborn,    220    ff. ;     vicious, 

232  ff. ;  organizations  of,  114;  gov- 
ernment by,  105  ff. ;   gaining  confi- 
dence of,  136. 

Purchasing  order  with  favors,  93. 

Qualitative  standards,  raising,  62  ff. 
Qualities   of    merit    among   teachers, 

studies  of,  25  f. 
QUINTILIAN,  176. 

Rage,  and  discipline,  41  f. 

Raising  standards,  62  ff. 

Rapport,  between  teacher  and  pupils, 
92,  251. 

Rational  attitude,  of  pupils  toward 
discipline,  62. 

Reading,  individual  assignments  in,  71. 

Rebellion,  among  pupils,  22  f.,  146  ff. 

Rebukes,  210;  as  penalties,  202;  of 
class  as  whole,  161  f. 

Reformatory  conception  of  punish- 
ment, 182,  198. 

Regimen,  of  work,  119  ff. ;  disciplinary 
effect  of,  119  f. ;  establishment  of, 
1 2 1  ff . ;  of  work  and  play,  236. 

Religious  flagellation,  173. 

Reparation,  collective,  99,  159. 

Repetition,  and  doctrine  of  interest, 
244  ff. 

Reporting  disciplinary  cases,  209  ff. 

Repression,  7. 

Reserve,  as  factor  in  teaching  person- 
ality, 31  f-,  33- 

Respect,  for  authority,  51 ;  for  law, 
194. 

Responsibility,  226,  228;  of  special 
teacher,  48;  of  teacher,  92. 

Retaliation,  in  punishment,  179. 

Rewards,  psychology  of,  164  ff. 

Rights,  and  privileges,  20;  individual, 
21  f.;  of  children,  21, 154;  of  others, 
interference  with,  217. 


258 


INDEX 


Right  start,  importance  of,  40  f . 
Rivalry,  225;   self,  70;   among  groups, 

71  f. 

Rod,  decline  of,  173  ff. 
Ross,  E.  A.,  3. 
ROUSSEAU,  J.  J.,  176. 
Routine,  and  discipline,  46,  119  ff. 
Rowdyism,  100. 
RUEDIGER,  W.  C.,  25. 
Rules,  and  discipline,  43,  134. 
RUSKTN,  J.,  163. 

Sacrifice,  63,  249. 

Sanctions,  social,  90  ff.,  95,  105,  113, 
135,  171,  177,  181,  183  f. 

Satiation,  as  a  penalty,  201  f. 

Scales,  objective,  68  ff.,  225. 

"Scamping  work,"  15. 

Scholarship,  as  factor  in  teaching  per- 
sonality, 31  f. 

School,  fires  in,  150  f. ;  the  indulged, 
142  ff. ;  leniency  in,  188;  support- 
ing good  name  of,  102 ;  unruly,  14  f., 
29  ff.,  51  ff. 

School  city,  105. 

School  government,  contrasted  with 
civil  government,  218. 

Schoolhouse,  construction  of,  as  regards 
discipline,  134. 

School  penalties,  contemporary,  198  ff. 

School  surveys,  102,  190  f. 

School  virtues,  67. 

Scolding,  160,  230;  as  penalty,  202  f. 

Secondary  school,  failure  among 
teachers,  26  f . ;  discipline  in,  84  f., 
99  f.,  140  f.,  160  f. ;  pupils'  opinions 
of  teachers  in,  35 ;  theft  among  pupils 
of,  152  f. 

Segregation  of  incorrigibles,  172. 

Self-complacent  pupil,  as  troublesome 
type,  225. 

Self-control,  9,  51  ff.,  239. 

Self-discipline,  38,  239. 

Self-government,  8,  94,  105  ff. ;  legit- 
imate uses  of,  109  f. ;  in  English 
schools,  in. 

Self-respect,  198;  and  corporal  pun- 
ishment, 184;  loss  of,  232. 

Self-rivalry,  70. 

Sentimentalism,  in  discipline,  192, 
211  ff.,  233  f. 


Severity,  16  f.,  133,  184  f.,  214,  233. 
Sex  hygiene,  234. 
Sexual  vice,  235. 
SHARP,  F.  C.,  154. 

Sincerity,  as  factor  in  teaching  per- 
sonality, 31  f. 

"Smartaleck-ism,"  14, 150  f. 
SMITH,  W.  H.,  65. 
SMITH,  S.,  186. 
SNEATH,  E.  H.,  227. 
Snowballing,  44,  134. 
Social  basis  of  education,  65,  240. 
Social  conditions  affecting  discipline, 

1 8,  20,  36,  63. 

Social  demands  hi  education,  239. 
Social  prejudices,  183  f.,  194. 
Social   progress,  zigzag    character  of, 

185  f. 
Social  sanctions,  171,  177,  181,  183  f. ; 

and  discipline,  135. 
Society,  method  of  control  in  adult, 

113- 

Soft-heartedness,  192. 
Solitary  treatment,  principle  of,  199  f . 
Spelling,  71  f. 

SPENCER,  H.,  4,  156,  176,  215. 
Spoiled  school,  142  ff. 
STABLETON.  J.  K.,  97. 
Standards,  raising  qualitative,  62  ff. 
Stealing,  135,  152  f. 
Stories,  in  moral  training,  227. 
Strategy,  expressed  in  children,  38 ;  in 

discipline,  52,  159. 
STRAYER,  G.  D.,  25. 
Strictness,  in  dealing  with  irresponsible 

child,  226. 
Stubborn  pupil,  as  troublesome  type, 

220  ff. 

Style,  and  fashion,  3  f . 
Subjection,  instinct  of,  37. 
Suggestion,  121. 
Suicide,  of  teachers,  55  f. 
Superintendent,  and  school  discipline, 

17,  59,  124  f.,   128,  147,  156  f.,  224; 

judgments    of,   regarding    teaching 

personality,  31. 
Supervision,  as  discipline,  17,    19;    of 

study  and  assembly  rooms,  160  f. 
Surrender,  in  cases  of  discipline,  221; 

in  learning,  243. 
Surveys,  school,  102,  190  f. 


INDEX 


259 


Suspension,  igg,  221;  as  punishment, 
208;  contrasted  with  corporal  pun- 
ishment, 195. 

Swing,  241  f . ;  special,  242  n. 

Symbolic  operation  of  punishment, 
170  f. 

Sympathy,  2,  20 ; '  and  discipline,  34  ff . ; 
and  sentimentalism,  192;  as  factor 
in  teaching  personality,  31  f.;  lack 
of,  in  supervision,  128. 

Tact,  in  discipline,  222. 

Tactlessness,  42  ff. 

Talebearing,  105  ff . ;  how  to  avoid 
encouragement  of,  108  f . 

Tasks,  as  punishments,  206. 

TAYLOR,  J.  S.,  204,  205,  206. 

Teacher,  analogies  to  parent,  92 ;  atti- 
tude of,  in  decadent  schools,  18 ;  ideal 
relationship  to  pupils,  91 ;  personal- 
ity of,  29  ff. 

Teachers,  worry  among,  190;  prepara- 
tion of,  23  ff . ;  pupils'  opinions  of, 
35 ;  special,  129;  suicide  of,  55  f. 

Teaching  instinct,  30. 

Teaching  population,  feminization  of, 
172;  inexperience  of,  235;  tenure 
of,  25  ff. 

Temper,  45 ;  and  discipline,  41. 

Testimony,  giving  of,  107  f. 

Theft,  152  f. 

Theory  of  discipline,  56,  238  ff. 

"Think  room,"  200. 

Thinking,  relation  of  doctrine  of  in- 
terest to,  247. 

THORNDIKE,  E.  L.,  68,  238. 

Time-table,  daily,  121,  242  n. 

Training,  and  discipline,  33. 

Travail,  of  mental  growth,  248  ff. 

Troublesome  types,  219  ff. 

United  States,  increase  of  crime  in,  133. 
Unpleasant  consequences,  discipline  of, 

165  f. 

Unpleasantness,  in  mental  growth,  247. 
Unruly  school,  51  ff. ;    general  causes 

of,  14  ff . ;  problem  of,  10  f . ;  raising 


standards  in,  62  ff. ;   specific  causes 
of,  29  ff. 

Vacillation,  and  discipline,  36  ff. 

Vandalism,  134,  213. 

Vice,  sexual,  235. 

Vices,  distinguished  from  crimes,  217; 
school,  218. 

Vicious  conduct,  150  ff. 

Vicious  pupil,  as  troublesome  type, 
232  ff. 

Vigor,  in  teaching,  27,  121  ff. 

Vindictive  punishments,  180. 

Virtues,  generalization  of,  227. 

Vitality,  as  factor  in  teaching  person- 
ality, 31  f. 

Vocational  choices,  245. 

Vocational  education,  183. 

Vocational  guidance,  246. 

Voice,  correction  of  defects  in,  50. 

Voice  of  teacher,  and  discipline,  47. 

"Warming-up"  period,  and  doctrine  of 
interest,  241  f. 

Washington  Irving  High  School,  139  ff . 

Weakness  of  will,  36  ff.,  245. 

"Whining,"  222,  229. 

"Whipping-boys,"  177  n. 

Whispering,  217. 

WHITE,  E.  E.,  58, 149,  221. 

Will,  "breaking"  of,  221  ;  weakness  of, 
and  discipline,  36  ff.,245. 

Willful  disobedience,  148. 

Willfulness,  90. 

WINES,  F.  H.,  218. 

WINSHIP,  A.  E.,  55,  195. 

Work,  as  master,  63  ff.,  239;  psy- 
chology of,  241  ff. ;  regimen  of, 
n8ff. ;  habits  of,  118. 

Worries,  as  enemies  of  enthusiasm,  127 ; 
among  teachers,  190. 

Writing,  scales  for  measuring,  68  f. 

"Writs  of  Assistaqce,"  quoted,  14,  148, 
203. 

YERKES,  R.  M.,  166. 

Youth,  advantages  of,  in  teachers,  27  f. 


T 


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